Process of aluminum dross recycling and life cycle assessment for
Al-Si alloys and brown fused alumina
Al-Si alloys and brown fused alumina
(1. State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China;
2. Institute of Marine Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 200433, China)
2. Institute of Marine Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 200433, China)
Abstract: In 2008, around 596 000 t of aluminum dross was generated from secondary aluminum industry in China; however, it was not sufficiently recycled yet. Approximately 95% of the Al dross was land filled without innocent treatment. The purpose of this work is to investigate Al dross recycling by environmentally efficient and friendly methods. Two methods of Al dross recycling which could utilize Al dross efficiently were presented. High-quality aluminum-silicon alloys and brown fused alumina (BFA) were produced successfully by recycling Al dross. Then, life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate environmental impact of two methods of Al dross recycling process. The results show that the two methods are reasonable and the average recovery rate of Al dross is up to 98%. As the LCA results indicate, they have some advantages such as less natural resource consumption and pollutant emissions, which efficiently relieves the burden on the environment in electrolytic aluminum and secondary aluminum industry.
Key words: aluminum dross; life cycle assessment; Al-Si alloys; brown fused alumina