Strategy to Improve Recycling Yield of Aluminium Cans

Abstract

Millions of canned drinks are consumed everyday globally and their wastes create an enviromental issue. Fortunately, the cans are made from aluminium (Al) so that it can be recycled. There are two main keypoints existing during the recycling process of Al cans, i.e. the aluminium loss or low Al-yield and low recycling yield. This work outlines the strategies to improve the recycling perfomance for Al beverage cans, i.e. by adding drossing flux, applying improved melting strategy, and cans decoating prior to melting. Drossing flux was added to assist the detachment of Al from the slag. Another improved melting strategy was worked out by decreasing exposure time cans to the furnace atmosphere during melting. All those above strategies result in an increase of recycle yield in a range of 4 % to 5 %.