A Midwest Circular Economy in Automotive Extrusions through Innovations in Alloy Design for Recycling and Low‐Energy Scrap Processing

Objective: Design and demonstrate new aluminium extrusion alloy compositions that accommodate high EOL vehicle (ELV) recycled content (RC). Optimize a novel low‐energy extrusion route for processing the high RC alloys into high‐value automotive profiles with lower forming energy and aging time required

Main Impact:

• Demonstrated capability to produce various automotive structural components that meet all mechanical specifications from a minimum of 25% RC aluminium billet with a reduced duration for heat treatment.

• Established potential to substantially reduce energy consumption in aluminum production by increasing scrap recycling instead of relying solely on bauxite mining.

• Showcased methodology for effectively integrating specific equity-related metrics into real-world processes.

Lead EMBERlab Researchers: Abdalla Elbassiouny, Ella Lunseth

Collaborator: Prof. Daniel Cooper (UM)

Industry Partners: Ford Motor Company, Hydro, PADNOS

Research Partner: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Funding: U.S. Department of Energy