Environmental Impact Saving in a Symbiosis Case Study: From Chips to WAAM Feedstock

The continuous growth in primary aluminum production has led to a considerable environmental footprint. Considering production processes, an estimated 15% of the production is lost as scrap during manufacturing. Metal scrap is traditionally recycled through energy-intensive remelting processes that often result in permanent material losses due to oxidation. It is therefore mandatory to rethink industrial streams from a new perspective. Industrial symbiosis can therefore be regarded as a promising strategy to promote circular economy practices. This strategy, which facilitates the reuse of production waste across industrial processes, represents a viable strategy for mitigating the environmental impact of industrial waste. Nevertheless, still some barriers, such as waste quality variability and additional pre-processing requirements, can hinder its practical implementation. This study investigates the environmental performance of a symbiotic manufacturing strategy for producing the metal feedstock for additive manufacturing. A comparative analysis is conducted between a symbiotic approach and two non-symbiotic alternatives: a conventional subtractive route and wire-based additive manufacturing method, respectively. This study quantifies the potential environmental benefits and trade-offs of the symbiotic route using Cumulative Energy Demand metric along with different allocation methods.