Researcher develops aluminum recycling method

Small aluminum recyclers can produce graded-quality aluminum ingots with enhanced metallurgical and mechanical properties from scrap using a new method developed by a researcher in India, according to Aluminium Insider).

The method was developed in a project titled “Technology System Development of Recycling of Aluminum alloys for Industrial Applications” led by Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College (SREC) mechanical engineering professor C. Bhagyanathan. The Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) program, which is part of the Technologies Development and Transfer Division (TDTD) program by India’s Department of Science and Technology, contributed funding to the project, Aluminium Insider reports.

Bhagyanathan told the publication, “The recycling method I have devised involves adding of alloying elements such as magnesium, manganese, zinc, chromium, boron, zirconium and strontium, which will enhance the metal’s properties.”

Additionally, the method allows small-scale operators to remove impurities, such as tin, lead, and iron from aluminum scrap using sedimentation and filtration methods. “We have introduced a sedimentation technique in the furnace and a filtration technique in the dye which would remove impurities from the molten metal,” the professor says in the article.

Bhagyanathan told Aluminium Insider that his method would increase the quantity of aluminum scrap small operators could process in addition to reducing production costs by as much as 30 percent.