CE1313 Properties of Materials

MATERIALS LIFE
CYCLE ANALYSIS
LECTURE TOPICS…..

•Economics

• Materials Life Cycle

• Resource Availability

• Recycling
LEARNING OUTCOMES

•Be aware that your decisions at materials engineers

have considerable social and economic outcomes

• Have a basic appreciation of the relative costings of

materials

• Be able to describe each stage in the life cycle of a material

• Be able to describe the pros and cons of recycling of

of each class of material
ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

Company must realize a profit from the product it manufactures

Materials engineer has control of:

1. Component design

2. Type of material

3. Manufacturing technique

Each of these factors are inter-related

RELATIVE COST OF MATERIALS
Graphite/
Metals/ Composites/
Ceramics/ Polymers
Alloys fibers
Semicond
100000
50000
$ /kg
$
Diamond
20000 Pt
Au
10000 ($ /kg )ref material
5000
Relative Cost ($ )
Si wafer
2000
1000 Si nitride
• Reference material:
500 --Rolled A36 plain
Ag alloys
200 Tungsten
CFRE prepreg
carbon steel.
100 Ti alloys Si carbide AFRE prepreg
50 Carbon fibers
Aramid fibers
20 Cu alloys GFRE prepreg • Relative cost, $,
Al alloys
10 Mg alloys Al oxide Nylon 6,6
PC fluctuates less
5 Epoxy
high alloy
Glass-soda PVC PET
E-glass fibers over time than
2 LDPE,HDPE
Steel
PP Wood actual cost.
1 pl. carbon PS
0.5

0.1
Concrete
0.05
TOTAL MATERIALS CYCLE

Each arrow consumes energy

15 billion tonnes
WHY RECYCLING?
Conserves natural resources

Decreases ecological impact of the extraction phase

Energy requirements normally less

Eg. 28 times more energy is required to refine natural Al
compared to recycling beverage can scrap

No need to dispose of recycled materials

Problem: COST $

Establishment of standards – regulatory agencies

LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS (LCA)

Consideration given to cradle-to-grave environmental assessment

CO2 FOOTPRINT
The mass of
carbon dioxide
(CO2), in kg,
produced and
released into the
atmosphere, as a
consequence of
the production of
one kg of the
material.

Increased alloying and performance

LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS (LCA)

• LCA: Eco-Audit (Bottle example)

RESOURCE AVAILABILITY

Identified ore Undiscovered ore

Economic
Reserve
Increased
prospecting

Improved mining
technology

Not
economic Resource base
(includes reserve)
RESOURCE AVAILABILITY

When will the resource run out?

Estimate the size of the resource base  half life of a resource

•For several important materials the half-life

is within your lifetime – oil, silver, and zinc ~
40 – 70 years
• Iron, aluminum ~ 100s of years
METALS RECYCLING

Avoid contamination

Product design – allow dismantling of components made from

different alloys

Separation Techniques – magnetic, gravity

Materials engineer design alloys to accept contamination

POLYMER RECYCLING - THERMOPLASTICS
Engineering polymers are inert  do not biodegrade, significant
contribution to landfill

300000
Consumption (t)
250000
Recovery (t)
200000

150000
15% 11%
32%
100000 5.5%
10%
50000
1.2%

0
HDPE LDPE PP PET PVC PS
ISSUES WITH POLYMER RECYCLING

• Reprocessing polymers often decreases the molecular weight –

drops in mechanical properties eg.TS, impact strength
• Most polymers are incompatible with each other – drops in TS,
elongation, impact strength
• Consumes energy in collecting, sorting and reprocessing
ISSUES WITH POLYMER RECYCLING
• In general, different polymers can not be blindly blended
together – gross phase separation of the polymers with poor
interfacial adhesion – poor mechanical properties
• Eg. difficult to blend nylon and polypropylene; nylon and PET

Highly defined Polymer A

interfacial boundary

Polymer B

Polymer chains of A to not

interact with polymer chains of B
: Poor interfacial adhesion
POLYMER RECYCLING - THERMOPLASTICS

HDPE

• majority pre-consumer industrial and

post-consumer domestic
• dairy HDPE containers ~ 50% of containers collected

Presently used for:

Issues:
• pipes (irrigation and drainage)
• coloration
• mobile garbage bins
• only minor amounts
• crates
used in applications
• sheet/panels
• pallets
• telecommunications pits
POLYMER RECYCLING - THERMOPLASTICS

LDPE

• shrink and stretch wrap from packaging

Presently used for:

• builders film Issues:
• pallets • contamination
• multi-layer films
POLYMER RECYCLING - THERMOPLASTIC

PP

• majority pre-consumer and post-consumer industrial

• battery covers, bank notes
• limited kerbside collection (low volumes)

Presently used for:

• pallets Issues:
• crates • variety of grades
• flower pots • contamination in consumer
• buckets waste
• polymer degradation
• low cost of virgin PP
POLYMER RECYCLING - THERMOSETS

Difficult to recycle – can not be re-moulded or reshaped due

to crosslinked structure
Car tyres – fuel for cement plants – dirty emissions