Studies on the Formation and Processing of Aluminium Dross with Particular Focus on Special Metals

In terms of production volume, aluminium is the leading metal in non-ferrous metallurgy. In particular, the recycling of aluminium-containing residues has strongly increased in recent years and will continue to gain importance in the future. Due to the high affinity of aluminium to oxygen, the oxidation of the molten bath is unavoidable, which leads to the formation of dross on the surface. This has a high content of metallic aluminium and therefore represents a valuable residual material that must be further processed. In the presented work, a study is conducted on the formation and possible further processing of aluminium dross. Within the scope of this experimental work, the pyrometallurgical treatment of Al-dross in the salt drum furnace was evaluated on the basis of an experiment in a TBRC (top blown rotary converter) by adding a salt mixture. In addition, the behaviour of special metals, in particular the rare earth elements (REEs), was investigated during such a melting process. This knowledge will be particularly important in the future, as inadequate scrap processing leads to more of these partially valuable contaminants entering the aluminium scrap cycle. The result of the experimental study was that the metal yield of the dross used in the melting experiment at the Chair of Nonferrous Metallurgy was higher than that achieved by external reprocessing. Regarding the distribution of the rare earths, there was a direct transition of these from the dross into the emerging salt slag phase.

Tetradiketone macrocycle for divalent aluminium ion batteries

Contrary to early motivation, the majority of aluminium ion batteries developed to date do not utilise multivalent ion storage; rather, these batteries rely on monovalent complex ions for their main redox reaction. This limitation is somewhat frustrating because the innate advantages of metallic aluminium such as its low cost and high air stability cannot be fully taken advantage of. Here, we report a tetradiketone macrocycle as an aluminium ion battery cathode material that reversibly reacts with divalent (AlCl2+) ions and consequently achieves a high specific capacity of 350 mAh g−1 along with a lifetime of 8000 cycles. The preferred storage of divalent ions over their competing monovalent counterparts can be explained by the relatively unstable discharge state when using monovalent AlCl2+ ions, which exert a moderate resonance effect to stabilise the structure. This study opens an avenue to realise truly multivalent aluminium ion batteries based on organic active materials, by tuning the relative stability of discharged states with carrier ions of different valence states.

Analysis of the oxide occurrence on WEDM surfaces in relation to subsequent surface treatments

Surface treatments are typical surface protection against corrosion or serve to create an attractive appearance for the end customer. However, the surface to which they are applied must be completely oxide-free, otherwise, defects occur which can cause subsequent corrosion or deterioration of the visual appearance of the product. The parts manufactured by wire electrical discharge machining, however, have a high tendency to oxidize. For this reason, this study was aimed at demonstrating the effect of machine setup parameters (gap voltage, pulse on and off time, wire feed and discharge current) on oxygen occurrence on the surface of two non-metallic (aluminium alloy 7475-T7351, chromium nickel superalloy Inconel 625) and four metallic materials (tool alloy steel X210Cr12, Hadfield steel, Creusabro 4800 and Hardox 400). Within this study, 18 samples were produced, where the chemical composition of energy-dispersive X-ray was analysed, on the basis of which the effect of these parameters on the surface oxidation was proved.

Microstructural Characterization of the Friction Stir Welding (FSW) Joints from Dissimilar Metallic Aluminium - Copper Alloys

During Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process materials to be joined will be subject of intense mechanical and thermal processes, characteristic to this solid state welding process. As a result, the welded materials will suffer quick heating and cooling cycles that will be overlapping on large plastic deformation/flow of the materials, which will produce their phase and structural transformation as well as modification of their properties. The paper investigates the structural transformation of the materials and will analyse the influence between the FSW process and these transformations.

Disruption of an Alumina Layer During Sintering of Aluminium in Nitrogen

Aluminium oxide layer on aluminium particles cannot be avoided. However, to make the metal-metal contacts possible, this sintering barrier has to be overcome in some way, necessarily to form sintering necks and their development. It is postulated that the disruption of alumina layer under sintering conditions may originate physically and chemically. Additionally, to sinter successfully non alloyed aluminium powder in nitrogen, the operation of both types mechanism is required. It is to be noted that metallic aluminium surface has to be available to initiate reactions between aluminium and the sintering atmosphere, i.e. mechanical disruption of alumina film precedes the chemical reactions, and only then chemically induced mechanisms may develop. Dilatometry, gravimetric and differential thermal analyses, and microstructure investigations were used to study the sintering response of aluminium at 620°C in nitrogen, which is the only sintering atmosphere producing shrinkage.

Salt Free Treatment of Aluminium Dross

Aluminium dross is composed of metallic aluminium and non-metallic compounds such as oxides, nitrides and carbides. The dross created during primary and secondary aluminium production can amount up to 1% of the total tonnage and may contain up to 90% aluminium metal. The conventional procedure for dross treatment is to use salt for separating the metallic aluminium and the non-metallic compounds. The resulting salt cake has to be processed further. This paper describes a process using a plasma rotary furnace with a non-oxidizing atmosphere and heated by a graphite plasma torch to separate the aluminium from the non-metallic compounds. A pilot scale furnace (charge 500kg) has been designed and tested. In the experiment presented here a mixture of aluminium and aluminium dross were charged into the furnace. Good atmosphere control was maintained during the experiment. No wear on the refractory and only minor wear on the graphite electrodes was observed after the experiment. The result shows that 98.9% of the aluminium in the charged raw materials was recovered in tapped metal without using any salt anywhere in the process. The aluminium metal tapped from the process had only minor increase in the trace elements compared to the metal originally produced. The inclusion content in the metal was also not increased significantly. The residual non-metallic compounds should be possible to recycle in the electrolysis or used in the cement industry.