ASSURING RECYCLABILITY OF AUTOMOTIVE MAGNESIUM ALLOYS: CHEMICAL COMPOSITION-BASED SORTING OF MAGNESIUM SHREDDED SCRAP

摘要

The proportion of magnesium used in automobile construction is quickly increasing. There already is an economic incentive to separate the Mg scrap recovered from shredded auto hulks from the Al scrap currently used for production of foundry alloys. Here we investigate the technical feasibility and economic incentive of sorting this post-consumer Mg scrap into value-added alloy groupings. In this paper, we present Mg alloy sort results from a prototype industrial sorter originally developed by Huron Valley Steel Corporation (HVSC) for sorting of aluminum-based alloys. That sorter uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to chemically analyze and sort each shredded scrap particle. We demonstrate the degree of separation that is feasible based on Al, Zn, Mn and Si element concentrations.