16 Aluminum Recycling
number of lithium-containing aluminum alloys. These alloys have an especially high
modulus of elasticity and are increasingly used in aircraft construction to save weight
without sacricing stiffness. Lithium is also added to some 2xxx alloys. The recycling of
lithium-containing alloys is a particular challenge, since the value of the lithium contained
in these parts recommends closed-loop recycling into the same alloy if at all possible.
As previously suggested, the difculty in recycling wrought aluminum alloys is
the problem of tolerance, the ability of an alloy to absorb elements not normally
present in its composition (Kevorkijan, 2010). To provide an example, the wrought
aluminum fraction of an automobile will be ...