Screening Environmental Impact Reduction Enabled by Brass Reclamation Through Hot Forging Operations

Abstract

The traditional method for recycling brass chips is to send the scrap back to the material manufacturer for re-melting. Alternatively, brass chips can be reclaimed through hot forging operations at the production site. As an initial screening of the environmental impact of this novel reclamation method, the impacts of this new method was compared to conventional brass production (including recycling) for a specific part. These two production routes were compared in terms of cumulative energy demand and climate change impact. The comparison between the two production routes showed that the new reclamation method reduced the cumulative energy demand with 29 % and climate change impact with 30 % for production of a specific part compared to conventional recycling. It is, however, important to note that the material produced using hot forging reclamation method have slightly lower mechanical properties as compared to the traditionally recycled material. Currently the novel recycling method is only tested in lab scale and therefore, further studies are needed in order to fully assess the environmental impacts of the new reclamation method compared to conventional brass production.