Technology

Issues in Recycling Aluminium for Extrusiona Review

(Paper Presented at Extrusion Summit 2008)

Introduction :
About 30 percent of the aluminium in the world presently comes from the secondary source, i.e. from recycled material. The percentage is increasing and it is estimated that it would touch 40 to 50 percent in about a decade. For example, presently an estimated 60 percent of the metal used in automobile is comprised of recycled aluminium, and this percentage is going to increase over the years. Remelting and recycling aluminium scrap is getting a lot more attention, considering these future trends. The increase in recycled metal becoming available is a positive trend, as secondary metal produced from recycled metal requires only about 2.8 kWh/kg of metal produced while primary aluminum production requires. It is to the aluminum industry's advantage to maximize the amount of recycled metal, for both the energy-savings and the reduction of dependence upon overseas sources (now about 40 percent of U.S.). Increasing the use of recycled metal is also quite important from an ecological standpoint, since producing aluminum by recycling creates only about 4 percent as much CO2 as primary production. Recycling aluminum alloys has been shown to provide major economic benefits. As a result, it is appropriate for the aluminum industry as a whole to identify, develop, and implement all technologies that will optimize the benefits of this. While the world started looking at recycling of aluminium with advent of

Raju Hirve
Intercon, Mumbai

suitable technologies for recycling the beverage cans, which involved elimination of the paints, the technology is being exploited to recycle machining scrap, swarf, turnings, and even dross, which contains lot of trapped aluminium metal. Extrusion Industry is another example where recycling is being adapted to a good extent. The significant economic advantages of aluminum can recycling have also been demonstrated in a study by the Center for Aluminum Technology (CAT) and the Sloan Industry Center for a Sustainable Aluminum Industry. For each 1 percent increase in the amount of aluminum cans recycled, the savings to the economy is $12 million/year. It was shown that this could approach $600 million to offset the U.S. trade balance if all available aluminum cans could be recycled. Savings such as these are significant enough to support the construction of new recycling plants, adding a significant number of high-paying jobs. The additional recycling also contributes to energy savings of 1 trillion BTU/year. Such major impacts have the potential to significantly decrease our reliance on overseas sources of primary aluminum metal. Today, most recycled aluminum has to be adjusted with more costly and energy-intense primary metal before it is reused in order to meet the performance requirements of most alloy and product specifications. The result is that, in most cases other than beverage cans, recycled metal tends to be used primarily for lower grade casting alloys or wrought products.

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While a modest amount of this will always be acceptable, the full benefits of a recycle-friendly world can only be realized when the recycle loop is closer to a closed loop for a number of product lines. These observations lead to the conclusion that as an industry we need to be looking forward to every opportunity for maximizing the advantages of what we are calling a recycle-friendly world. In the discussion that follows, we will begin to develop the characteristics of such a world, and then to identify and address the technological challenges of optimizing that environment.

Strategy World

for

Recycle-Friendly

In the ideal recycling world of the aluminum industry : l Recycling of all used aluminum products and components would be the norm, and the total content of recycled products would increasingly approach the total aluminium consumption. l The amount of primary production required would be reduced. l Recycled aluminum would be processed utilizing automatic sorting, shredding, and separation technology to facilitate its reuse in new products. l A variety of existing and new aluminum alloys would be available with compositions compatible with the composition of most recycled metal. The opportunities for direct use of the recycled, shredded, and sorted metal would be optimized. l Parallel to the existing situation with beverage cans, there would be a number of high-value applications into which the recycled metal would flow. The resultant product made directly from the recycled metal would meet the required composition and mechanical property specification limits for those applications.

Oxidation of Aluminium during melting

It has already been noted that scrap remelt can result in very high dross levels and melt losses. This is because of several factors: 1) A lot of Al scrap contains Mg (e.g.

cans) and these are prone to increased oxidation 2) Manufacturing operations generate a high proportion of thin gauge scrap, e.g. turnings and swarf with high surface to volume ratios. 3) Direct exposure to high temperature flame is common practice. 5) In the case of 100 percent remelt, the charge is often made to a dry hearth for safety reasons, thus leaving the charge exposed for long periods during the critical partial melting phase. When scrap is remelted, several things occur. The pre-existing oxide skin on most scrap (which is actually quite thin, < 0.?mm) thickens during direct heating. The internal oxide levels found in the cracks and cavities of high-Mg alloy sows can be excessive. The formation of seed crystals of aAl2O3, MgO and spinel, particularly around melting grain boundaries of scrap, accelerates the onset of breakaway oxidation behaviour. In 1999, it was estimated that with an annual world production of 20 million tons of primary aluminium and 4-5 million tons of secondary aluminium, running with an average melt loss of ~1.5percent (not unreasonable, best is about 0.3 percent), that this amounts to some 360,000 tons of aluminium lost each year. The typical melt loss in a foundry melting ingots using oil-fired pot furnaces is ~3.7percent; comprising of 0.36 percent melting and pouring pot cleanings, 0.47 percent splashes, 0.30 percent metallic dross (furnace skimmings), 0.57 percent ladle skimmings, 0.28 percent metal loss from pot failure and 0.5-1.7 percent unexplained losses. Oxidation of fresh metal surfaces starts off rapidly with a linear-type growth rate, but the rate of aluminium and/or oxygen transport through the oxide layer to supply any further reaction becomes more difficult as the film thickens with time. The growth rate then starts to slow and becomes governed by parabolic-type rate laws.

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Technology

Oxidation rates increase as the driving forces for the reaction increase; e.g. as melt temperature increases, as the level of reactive elements like Mg, Li, etc., in the alloy increase, and as the O2 content of the atmosphere increases. Interestingly though, the presence of water vapour (which breaks down into hydrogen and oxygen at melt temperatures) can exert a stabilizing effect on oxide growth. Carbon dioxide, CO2, generally slows down oxidation rate. These two facts mean that burner control and furnace efficiency become vital in determining overall oxidation rate. Turbulent movement of liquid metal is able to generate sufficient stresses to tear/crack oxide films (protective or not) on the melt surface. This action exposes the molten metal directly beneath the tear/crack to immediate further oxidation. The more the metal is subjected to this kind of disruption, the greater will be the overall oxidation rate. The rate of oxidation on aluminium that is in process of melting (i.e. it is mix of solid and liquid phases at a temperature between liquidus and solidus) can actually be greater than that of a fully-molten alloy, particularly at the lower molten temperature range. The longer it takes to heat a charge through this temperature range, the more oxidation will occur. The surface area to volume ratio (A/V) of solid metal charges is important. Scrap remelting using fine gauge aluminium as opposed to heavy gauge scrap generates much higher overall oxidation because oxidation depends on exposed area. It has also been found that the condition of the surface of the solid metal to be melted affects the oxidation rate and amount. However, this is not an easy area to assess since both surface roughness (determined in part by the forming process) and the nature and integrity of the preexisting skin combine to affect the outcome, and these are considerably inter-dependent.

Ways to Reduce Melt Loss

Preventing formation of oxide holds the key. The ways to reduce melt loss include : l Reducing metal turbulence particularly during melt transfers (i.e. by decreasing vertical drop height, pouring speed, etc.) l Keeping melt temperatures to a minimum l Keeping holding and processing times to a minimum l Avoiding continual ingress of air into furnaces by maintaining positive furnace pressure l Minimizing unnecessary melt movement and avoid the in-house remelting of fine gauge scrap There are many techniques and technologies available to augment good melt handling practice in the goal of reducing dross formation. These include : l Siphoning, l Submerged pumping, l Inert gas blanketing l In-line scavenging and degassing l Fluxing, l High efficiency smelters, l Vacuum furnaces, l Burner monitor and control

Tilting Rotary Furnace :

The Tilting Rotary Furnace is now a well known part of the secondary aluminium smelters 'armoury' of furnaces. Over the last 10 years or so, a growing number of manufacturers have introduced their particular version of this equipment which first saw the light of day in the copper smelting industry between the World Wars. The TRF is a basically a rotating well furnace set at an angle and of all the types of melting systems available today is probably the most versatile, combining the advantages of reverbs, dry hearths and fixed axis rotaries. It can melt just about anything and provides the secondary aluminium smelters with an extre mely flexible tool.

It offers following advantages :

l Eliminates or considerably reduces

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the use of salt flux 'parasite' air as the furnace works under pressure l Reduces metal pollution from free iron as it is a 'batch' melting process l Facilitates alloy change l Offers the lowest energy consumption l Guarantees high melt rates l The concept of the TRF facilitates thermal transfer and offers an extremely good thermal yield. Thanks to the movement or 'tumbling' action of the charge contact between the hot combustion gases and the charge itself is optimised. The Aluminium scrap can be generally classified into the following types: 1) Industrial scrap The scrap from this source is usually fairly easy to process and the products are normally composed of new, clean or lightly oxidized off-cuts. However, off-cuts sourced from aluminium door and window manufacturers can contain highly fumigant materials such thermal barriers. 2) General scrap Products from this sector are very diverse and can be 'clean' or more or less contaminated with oil and grease and can contain coatings (paint & lacquer) or plastics. All of which is in fact 'latent energy' in the change. Particular care should be taken when processing : l Old cast (eg engine blocks) that may contain high levels of grease and/or oil l Lacquered can stock that may carry plastic seals (caps) l Swarf (chips) that has not been dried 3) Foundry drosses (Diecasting foundry dross, primary and secondary dross) To melt efficiently and economically such a range of materials the TRF is the ideal design of furnace however, without a sophisticated and flexible burner control system the design concept cannot be exploited to its full potential. A detailed understanding of the process is required for the proper design of any control system.
l Eliminates

Efficiency and performance is enhanced by monitoring the conditions of the charge at different times in the melt cycle to minimise energy consumption and prevent metal loss through oxidation. A badly controlled burner is the source of low yields and high energy consumption. Initially the burner power is set at neutral (stoichiometric ratio) then the flame is adjusted to be more or less reducing or oxidizing from the operator control desk. This can be done either manually by the operator or fully automatically via the oxygen sensor that analyzes the combustion products in the flue. So different types of scrap: clean, slightly contaminated, heavily contaminated can be processed to achieve optimum results.

Coating Scrap with aqueous Salt Mixture :

Another rather simplified approach is to coat the scrap with an aqueous solution containing a mixture of approximately 50-50percent KCl and Nacl, instead of submerging the scrap under a cover of salt. This considerably reduces the energy lost in melting and maintaining the pool of molten salt. Also, since almost all the surface of the scrap is coated with the salt, oxidation is minimized. Various methods, such as submerging the scrap suitably, to enable the solution to enter through capillary action, coupled with spray are being discussed, though a commercially viable and proven process is yet to be seen, with this technique. The issue of equipment with suitable opportunity to dry the moisture, then burn off oils and paints, followed by rapid melting remain the same.

Conclusion :
With an increased focus on recycling of aluminium alloys, and with the advent of modern techniques that improve the recoveries dramatically, the industry is going to adopt recycling of aluminium in various forms of scrap as a norm, in the years to come, and derive economic and other benefits thereof.

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