Environmental modelling of aluminium recycling: a Life Cycle Assessment tool for sustainable metal management

Paraskevas, Dimos; Kellens, Karel; Dewulf, Wim; Duflou, Joost R.

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.102

Cited by 110 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…For RR=65%, a decrease of can weight obtained through body weight reduction has worse effects in terms of compliance with Mn concentration limits compared to a reduction in lid weight. Despite both cases fall outside the limits for Mn concentration, the reduction of lid weight can be considered within the 10% uncertainty range allowed by Paraskevas et al (2015). …”

Section: Variation Of Alloying Elements In Can Bodymentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Therefore, we conducted an LCA considering the actual alloy composition of both the lid and the can body, as reported in Table 1. A first attempt to perform LCA of aluminium alloys has been presented by Paraskevas et al (2015) for the major post-consumer scrap streams, but we here further differentiate between the components of the can. Apart from the can body and lid manufacturing, the actual can production including lacquering, filling of the can, and then the recycling with pre-processing, remelting and alloy adjustment stages, are included in the system boundaries presented in Fig.…”

Section: Goal and Scope Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LCA is widely used by the aluminium industry to assess its achievement in terms of environmental sustainability goals , as well as to quantify the environmental performances of aluminium recycling (e.g. Paraskevas et al 2015). Extensive work in the application of LCA for aluminium cans has been performed by both the aluminium industry (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are several types of losses connected with the recycling of metals, including aluminium (Castro et al 2004;Amini et al 2007;Nakamura et al 2012;Paraskevas et al 2015): (i) material losses, i.e. physical losses during scrap preparation and separating processes and melting losses; (ii) quality losses, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…due to mismatch between the composition of secondary material and input material requiring alloying elements to be added, and (iii) dilution losses, due to the dilution with primary aluminium to lower the concentration of contaminants to the desired limits of the target alloy. After analysing the influence of scrap quality on the environmental assessment of aluminium recycling, Paraskevas et al (2015) concluded that container and packaging scrap can be perfectly managed in a separate closed loop recycling strategy for the same application. However, according to the European Aluminium Association (EAA), from an environmental point of view it doesn't matter whether used cans end up again in new cans or in other product systems (Labberton 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Circular economy: To be or not to be in a closed product loop? A Life Cycle Assessment of aluminium cans with inclusion of alloying elements

Niero

Olsen

2016

Resources, Conservation and Recycling

125

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Abstract:Packaging, representing the second largest source of aluminium scrap at global level, deserves a key role in the transition towards the circular economy. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of aluminium products has been typically based on one life cycle considering pure aluminium flows and neglecting the presence of alloying elements and impurities. However, this simplification undermines the potentials of using LCA to quantify the environmental performances of products in multiple loops, as required in the circular economy. This study aims to investigate the effects of including the actual alloy composition in the LCA of aluminium can production and recycling, in order to understand whether a can-to-can (i.e. closed product loop) recycling should be promoted or not. Mass balance of the main alloying elements (Mn, Si, Cu, Fe) was carried out at increasing levels of recycling rate, corresponding to a temporal interval of five years. Different aluminium packaging scrap sources were considered: mixed packaging aluminium scrap and used beverage can scrap.The outcomes of the mass balance were used to quantify the amount of Mn and primary Al that needs to be reintegrated in each scenario according to the recycling rate and this information was further used to perform an LCA of 30 loops of aluminium can production and recycling, based on the actual alloy composition. The LCA revealed that the closed product loop option (considering used beverage can scrap) has lower climate change impacts over the other recycling scenario using mixed Al packaging scrap. The main recommendation from an LCA methodological point of view is to include the idea of multiple co-functions in the functional unit definition. To further improve the environmental performances of the aluminium beverage can sector towards circular economy implementation the key actions are: to reduce the weight of the lid, to develop methods to separate the body and lid at the point of collection, and to investigate the potentials of a closed supply chain loop for aluminium cans in terms of combined environmental and economic value creation.

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Section: Variation Of Alloying Elements In Can Bodymentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Goal and Scope Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%