Green Engineering atGeneral Motors:

Selected Case Studies from Manufacturing,Facility, and Product Design

John Bradburn, Sr. Environmental Project EngineerCasey Essary, Environmental Engineer

Miguel Antonetti, Environmental SupervisorJackie Quinn, Sr. Project Engineer, DFE

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Since 1995, GM has…..

• Cut total waste/vehicle by 30%

• Cut non-recycled waste by 76%

• Boosted recycling to 88% of all waste

• Cut natural gas use by 25%

• 3 plants operating with “zero landfilledwastes” by recycling and generatingelectricity

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Outline

• Zero Landfill Manufacturing Processes– Grinding Swarf Recycling– Solvent Wiper Recycling– Filtration Technologies

• Facility Design—Landfill Gas• Product Design Examples

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Zero Landfill ManufacturingProcesses: Machining Plants

• GM has 3 plants with “Zero Landfill” status– Flint Engine South (867 people/ 1,650 engines/day)

– Tonawanda (2,500 people/4,000 engines/day)

– Wixom (Custom engines, 40/day)

• >95% of waste recycled, remainder incineratedto generate electricity

• None of the plants were originally designed tooperate this way

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VehicleComponentRecovery

Batteries

Cardboard

Filters

Fluids

Foundry wastes

Grinding swarf

Metal scrap

Oil

Plastics

Paper

RubberSludges

Solvents

Textiles

Trash

Wood

GM Uses Resource Managers to provide in-plant resources to help GM achieve zero landfilland recover all resources to their highest value

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Top 5 Wastes by Tonnage—”Zero Landfill” Plants

• Scrap metal (almost 30,000 T)

• General plant trash (1,413 TEnergy)

• Swarf (1,389T)

• Used oil (855T)

• Wood (388 T)

*FES+TON

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Tonawanda Engine

Landfill 0.6%Energy

Recovery,

4.4%

Recycled

Plastic 0.2%

Incineration

0.01%

Recycled

Metal 87.7%

Recycle/Reuse

7.2%

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Manufacturing Process

ROUGHMACHINEDCASTING

CONVENTIONALMACHINING

LEAK TESTING/

NDESHIPPING

WOODCARDBOARD

GLOVES

CHIPSCOOLANT

SWARFCUTTING TOOLS

FILTERSOIL

SCRAP PARTS

LIGHTBULBSGLOVES

BATTERIESPAPER

PLASTICWIPES

MEDICAL WASTES

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Top 5 Wastes by Tonnage—”Zero Landfill” Plants

• Scrap metal (almost 30,000 T)

• General plant trash (1,413 TEnergy)

• Swarf (1,389T)

• Used oil (855T)

• Wood (388 T)

*FES+TON

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Dealing With Swarf• What can you do with swarf?

– Swarf=mix of oil, water, fine metal particles, textiles

– Mix with chips & sell to steel mills

– Cutting fluid filter media mixed with grinding swarfmade it hard to find a market

• Adding recycling to existing plants—floor space,systems, training

• Needed a Best Practice to be consistent

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Dealing with Swarf• Eliminate roll media contamination• Dry it—no dripping trucks leaving the plant• Compact it—easier to reuse

Cross functional teammakes it happen:

Resource manager,environmentalengineer, millwright, &the guy who emptiesthe swarf boxes

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• Polymer fabric filters machining coolant• Added a “rewinder” to keep used media out of

swarf• Specified filters made from a single polymer.

– Easier to recycle, and can be lower cost than multiplecomponent systems

• How is it recycled?– Shred, mix with polyethylene– Made into pallet spacers

• 3.5M so far

Keeping Filter Media Out of Swarf

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Clean and Re-use Dry DustAir Filtration Cartridges

• Cylindrical air filters collect dust from welding, shot blast,powder coating , and general air makeup systems.– GM North America used >40,000/year

– Bulky in waste stream

• In 2005, we cleaned and reused > 7,900 filters at>$400,000 savings, > 1,600 Yd3 landfill elimination

~0.6m

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New Filtration Technology:Easier Cleaning, Longer Life

• Herding Filtration®--PTFE coated rigid sintered PE filterpanel

• Forms micro-porous surface, blocking PM from embedding intothe filter elements

• Coating enhances removal and eliminate adhesion of viscousmatter (styrene, creosote)

• Filter life up to 7 years

1. Separated Dust

2. PTFE surface size of pores 2-3 µmthickness of coat approx. 5 µm

3. Rigid filter element PE size of pores approx. 30 µm, wall thickness 4mm

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2

3

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Rags to Riches: Solvent Wipers

•Polypropylene solvent rags clean vehicle surfacesin our assembly plants

•The polypropylene is converted to pellets andused as feedstock for new vehicle parts.

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Facility Design: Landfill Gas• Methane: significant

greenhouse gas

• 5 GM plants use landfillgenerated methane intheir steam boilers

• Landfill gas can supplyover half the energy forthe boilers and cut costs$500k/yr at a typical plant

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Product Design: Pontiac G6Hydroformed steel front engine cradle: reducedscrap and saved 354 tons of weld wire for the 2005model year.

Eliminated lead from corrosionprotection coating.

Ch. Hartl / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 167 (2005) 383–392

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Product Design: Saturn VUE

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2007 Saturn VUE Hybrid• Fluids

– Long life coolant—saves a flush & change– Oil life sensor—change it when you need to– Fill for life transmission fluid

• Electric Motors– Electric Power steering—no hydraulic fluid, lighter, +0.9 mpg– Regulated voltage control--+0.2 mpg

• Spark Plug– Added platinum to double the life to 100k mi

• Recycled Content– 20% in wheel liners

• Projecting 20% better mileage than non-hybrid Vue

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Design for Disassembly

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Design for Disassembly

Wheneverpossiblechoose singlematerial that iseasy to recycle;minimizenumber offastenersizes….Disassemblymanuals are onpublic website

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Making New Green Engineershttp://www.gm.com/company/gmability/edu_k-12/k-4/earth/cool_jobs.html

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Summary• Find opportunities by analyzing your systems:

top 5 wastes, top 5 disposal costs, dumpsterdiving.

• Educate your engineers• Consortia, EPA Wastewise & State programs

can give you ideas.• Working with universities can uncover

opportunities—including fresh eyes of coops &interns.

• Many “green” manufacturing and facilityinitiatives are also cost savings