aluminium profile exhibition | Recycled Aluminium - Green Low Carbon Materials

Aluminium alloys are highly corrosion-resistant and can usually be recycled many times, making them highly recyclable. The recycling rate is higher than that of other materials. Therefore the industry has started aluminium alloy recycling and reclamation very early.

According to aluminium profile exhibition, producing 1 tonne of recycled aluminium is equivalent to saving 3.4 tonnes of standard coal, 14 cubic metres of water and 20 tonnes of solid waste emissions compared to producing the equivalent amount of primary aluminium. Undoubtedly, expanding the use of recycled aluminium will help the aluminium industry to reduce carbon emissions.

Recycled aluminium is an aluminium product that is produced from the trimmings generated during aluminium processing (new scrap aluminium) or recycled aluminium from end-of-life aluminium products (old scrap aluminium). At this stage, only recycled aluminium alloys with the addition of old scrap aluminium can be used to calculate the amount of carbon emission reduction in the carbon footprint calculation process for automotive parts.

The high-emission part of the aluminium alloy industry is mainly in the electrolysis process. Recycled aluminium only needs to melt the scrap aluminium to remove impurities and add alloying elements. Carbon emissions are therefore much lower than those of primary aluminium. According to the data of the European Aluminium Association, the energy consumption of producing 1 ton of recycled aluminium is only 5% of that of primary aluminium, and only 0.5 ton of carbon dioxide emission is produced.

Domestic recycled aluminium industry industrialisation history is relatively short. But after several years of development, some large-scale enterprises have emerged.

In the past, the automobile application die-casting aluminium alloy is more, mainly concentrated in the wheel hub, engine block cylinder head, transmission and other parts. With the increasing demand for automotive lightweight, automotive aluminium has gradually expanded to cover parts (four doors and two covers), all-aluminium body and so on. The more aluminium alloy parts are applied, the greater the demand for recycled aluminium will be due to the establishment of carbon neutral targets. However, most of the current recycled old scrap aluminium can not be grade-preserving due to the high content of impurities, and can only be downgraded into die-casting aluminium alloy. In order to achieve graded recycling and to be able to truly reduce carbon emissions, recycled aluminium alloys need to follow certain principles.