Innovative sorting of aluminium and Zorba

摘要

There are no limits set to the recycling of metals;they can be reused without limitation andto 100 percent. Of course, metals have to beseparated from non-metal impurities, and differentmetals have to be sorted in pure fractionsto be able to use them as secondary rawmaterial.Due to the use and substitution of primaryby secondary raw materials, not only primaryraw materials can be saved, but in many casesalso the use of energy and therefore the processcosts can be minimised considerably too.However, the resources of Mother Earth areexhaustible, making it more and more importantto use secondary raw materials. If we takealuminium as an example: by using secondaryraw materials, the energy-intensive electrolysisprocess for the primary production can besaved, thereby reducing the energy costs intotal to approximately ten percent comparedto the primary production. It should also benoted that the mining of many ores for theprimary production occurs in politically unstableregions and sometimes under inhumanworking conditions. Not to disregard is alsothe environmental impact, both due to theore mining and during the process from oreto metal.