Scrap-tolerant and recycling-friendly metallic alloys

Research question

The research aims to develop alloys using the principle of “design to recycle” so that the amount of scrap material that is currently used (25% for Steels and 35% for Aluminium) could be increased dramatically. This could be done while keeping the mechanical properties intact or even leveraging the tramp elements present in scrap to enhance properties. We want to develop demonstrator steel alloys considering the automotive industry which could be competitive to currently available materials.

Sustainability aspects

Increasing circularity of materials will reduce demand for mining of new materials and could also save energy and emissions. For example, Aluminium production from secondary raw material requires 5% of the energy used in primary production. Furthermore, this would mean a low amount of end-of-life trash accumulation and better utilization of resources available to us.