WHITLEY, England - Aluminium is one of the most widely recycled materials on earth, but the lightweight metal is not often reused in the automotive world.
Your soft drink can often ends up becoming someone else’s refreshment, but Jaguar is working on a technology that could make recycled aluminium more common in car production.
The British carmaker is hoping to reduce its production emissions by more than 25 percent with an innovative recycling process that could upcycle aluminium waste from drink cans, bottle tops and even scrapped vehicles.
Jaguar calls it the Reality aluminium project and during research, engineers were able to use the recycled aluminium parts and mix them with a lower amount of primary aluminium to form a new and tested prototype alloy, comparable to JLR’s existing grade and quality.
By recovering the high-quality automotive-grade aluminium used to manufacture vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover can re-use the premium properties as part of a blend, reducing the need for virgin aluminium in vehicle production.
Usually aluminium vehicle scrap is re-used for low-end applications, but new advanced separation technology has enabled it to be upcycled back into the automotive process, helping close the loop and reduce the environmental impact.
“This project has allowed us, for the first time, to recover premium automotive-grade aluminium from scrapped vehicles and re-use its unique properties,” said lead project manager Gaëlle Guillaume.
“As we move into an autonomous, connected and electrified future, with the potential of shared fleets being de-commissioned en masse, it could allow Jaguar Land Rover to engineer this closed loop recycling alloy into tight production schedules to further improve efficiency and environmental benefits.”
ALSO READ: Jaguar could become an all-electric brand
As previously reported, Jaguar is rumoured to be working on a plan to become an electric-only car company, and the carmaker will no doubt rely even more on lightweight materials such as aluminium to offset the weight of batteries and maximise efficiency.
IOL Motoring