Recycling-oriented alloy design for next-generation of sustainable metallic materials

European industry increasingly focusses on recycling, pushing towards circular economy as part of EU Green deal. This offers enormous energy savings and CO2 reductions. However, there are several problems hindering the metals recycling.

Effective solution to counter these problems is the development of new alloys, recycling-friendly by design.

One of the rising problems during recycling, is the progressive accumulation of impurities in alloys produced from scrap

metal. Elements such as tin cannot be effectively removed during manufacturing alloys from scrap. Therefore, the next

generation of alloys will have be able to tolerate more impurities (therefore inclusions) than current alloys. Such materials

also have to be more resistant to fracture, due to the potential damage nucleation at inclusions. However, impurities cause

significant changes of properties and induce considerable complexity even in simple alloy systems. Therefore, the

development of the recycling-oriented alloys based on understanding of changes caused by various compositional

deviations require a significant volume of research.

Concentrated solid solution alloys, including some of the established compositions of austenitic steels have the attributes

essential for recycling-oriented alloys. They show enhanced tolerance to compositional deviations due to the extended

compositional space with desired microstructures. and intrinsically high ductility levels.

In this project, we first aim to analyze the consequences of the compositional changes and impurities to the changes of

mechanical properties and damage-tolerance of said materials. Ultimately, scrap-compatible alloys for sustainable

metallurgy will be prepared. Special attention will be placed on the effects of the elemental partitioning and their interactions

with defects. The project outcomes will contribute to the development of recycling-oriented alloys on the global level, for future green metallurgy with reduced environmental impact.