According to the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, recycling aluminium from end-of-life products and production scrap requires only around five per cent of the energy needed to produce primary aluminium. Recycling this lightweight metal therefore offers considerable potential to conserve resources and save energy.
The real challenge lies in the composition of the material. Aluminium is alloyed with numerous other elements for different applications. At the end of a product's useful life, these elements are difficult to separate. When different end-of-life alloys are mixed during recycling, this often leads to downcycling: high-quality materials are turned into materials that can no longer be used for the same applications.
Alloys designed for higher recycled content
This is where the EU research project RecAL (Recycling technologies for circular ALuminium) comes in. It is led by the LKR Light Metals Technologies Ranshofen, a subsidiary of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. Together with 19 partner organisations from nine European countries, the project aims to develop a new approach to a more circular aluminium economy.
One key area of research is alloy design. The aim is to develop solutions that can accommodate a higher proportion of recycled material while retaining the desired material properties. The focus is therefore not simply on recovering as much aluminium as possible, but on making secondary aluminium suitable for high-value applications once again.
At the same time, RecAL is developing digitally controlled sorting processes. The more accurately different aluminium streams can be identified and separated, the more effectively they can be reused. The aim is to produce recycled material streams with significantly improved purity.
Sensors and digital twins to manage material flows
Alongside materials development, robotics, sensor technology and digital twins play a central role in the project. They are intended to make aluminium flows more transparent and enable more efficient management throughout the entire life cycle.
The approach therefore addresses several areas simultaneously: materials are to be better suited to the use of secondary aluminium, scrap is to be sorted more precisely, and existing material flows are to be digitally recorded. To achieve this, RecAL considers the entire value chain, from production and use through to recycling.
Another component is the digital RecAL Hub. The platform is designed to connect recycled material streams, recycling technologies, producers and buyers. This should help direct materials to applications where their specific properties can be put to use again.
Circular economy as a competitive advantage
Increasing the proportion of secondary aluminium is expected to reduce the industry's carbon footprint. At the same time, a Europe-wide interconnected circular system should help reduce dependence on raw materials and strengthen the resilience of European industry.
“With RecAL, we want to demonstrate that high-tech and the circular economy are not mutually exclusive,” says Gerald Prantl, project manager at LKR. A European circular aluminium system could lay the foundations for an industrial future that combines environmental sustainability with competitiveness.
RecAL is scheduled to run until 2028.
