Lifecycle Assessment and Lifecycle Costing of Aluminium Wrought-to-Wrought Recycling

Abstract

The aluminium scrap market is undergoing rapid changes which will trigger off new recycling strategies. As the cast scrap market saturates it will become economically feasible to apply scrap also in aluminium wrought alloy production. As part of an EU project, Sustainable and efficient Production of Light weight solutions (SuPLight) a method for assessing life cycle environmental and economic consequences of applying aluminium scrap in high-end products has been developed. In this work, the method has been applied to assess life cycle environmental and economic impacts for six scenarios, embracing five various strategies for scrap treatment. This includes processes in material and component production, as well as fuel use during operation of vehicle and end-of-life treatment. The model for scrap strategies includes three grades of sorting and separation, plus simple refining by low-temp electrolysis and fluxing, and refining by Hoopes process. Not surprising, we find that sorting is beneficial compared to refining. More notable, perhaps, is the relative large difference between scenarios with regards to the environmental impacts considered. Finally, we discuss benefits from the life-cycle evaluation of scrap scenarios and use of the tool in business development.