Refining of Secondary Aluminum: Important Chemical Factors

There are important economic and environmental incentives to recycling. Unfortunately, secondary aluminum frequently contains undesirable impurity elements. These limit the amount of material that can be recovered, since usual practice has been meet alloy specifications by dilution (that is, blending with primary metal). In 2019, China curtailed importation scrap metal, which changed market in North America. The price differential between metal suddenly became 20 or 30 cents a pound, sometimes more. This was large enough producers began ask: “Is there refining process we use recover this scrap?” paper is an attempt answer question. Chemical factors make it possible (or impossible) remove reviewed detail. Example calculations presented some alloying elements considered individually.