About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2027 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Circular Metallurgy: Design, Technology, Application
|
| Presentation Title |
Mechanism-Guided Upcycling of Downgraded Aluminum Scrap through Iron-Rich Intermetallic Trapping |
| Author(s) |
Dheeraj Kumar Saini, Waleed Mohammed, Dierk Raabe |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Dheeraj Kumar Saini |
| Abstract Scope |
Aluminum recycling is essential for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with primary aluminum production. It offers nearly 95% energy savings compared with primary production. This study presents a novel bottom-squeezing filtration process to upcycle severely contaminated aluminum scrap into commercially viable alloys. A thermodynamic-guided framework was developed to design scrap chemistry and promote formation of filterable Fe-rich intermetallic compounds. To understand the impurity removal mechanisms, coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian simulations incorporating a laminar mixture model and particle tracking were employed. The results show that polyhedral α-Al(Fe, Mn)Si intermetallics exhibit significantly higher settling velocity than platelet β-AlFeSi phases, leading to more efficient sedimentation and separation prior to filtration. By tailoring the scrap composition prior to processing, the removal efficiency of Fe-rich impurities can exceed 90%, demonstrating the potential of this scalable approach to produce high-quality recycled aluminum from low-grade scrap and offering a scientifically grounded strategy for advancing circular aluminum metallurgy. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Undecided |
| Keywords |
Recycling and Secondary Recovery, Aluminum, Sustainability |