Researchers look into ironing out a secondary aluminum limitation

A materials scientist based in Germany has been awarded 2 million euros ($2.17 million) from a research grant program to study ways to purify and upgrade secondary aluminum.

Hanka Becker, an alumna of TU Bergakademie Freiberg, a university in Freiberg, Germany, has received the funding from the DFG Emmy Noether Programme and will set up her new research group at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany, this year.

Becker studied materials science and materials technology at and received her doctorate in 2018 with a thesis on intermetallic phases and their formation in ferrous aluminum-silicon alloys. Her new research will involve recycled-content aluminum alloys.

“I am particularly interested in how to deal with unavoidably introduced impurities and accompanying elements during recycling,” Becker says.

In an interview published by Euroguss, Becker says in part, “When aluminum and its alloys are recycled, impurities such as iron are introduced.”

She will draw from her previous research into the intermetallic phases of metals when looking at this phase of the melt shop process that can have a negative impact on a wide range of application properties.

In terms of reducing the presence or impact of iron in secondary alloys, Becker tells Euroguss, “The aim of the research project is to use innovative grain refiners to adjust the microstructure, including the intermetallic phases, in such a way that the impurity elements can be tolerated or even utilized without any disadvantages.”

For scrap processors and traders seeking more flexible and higher-value end markets for their material, progress in the research could bring good news.

“The quality of recycled aluminum alloys is critical for their subsequent use,” Becker tells her alma mater. “I am delighted to be able to work on this highly topical issue with a research group in the near future.

“The handling of impurities and accompanying elements will be groundbreaking for the future metallurgy of recycled aluminum alloys.”