Every day, tons of aluminum are discarded as waste. Metal that could be reused is often recycled only through energy-intensive processes that come with a heavy environmental cost. A team of Lehigh students is asking a bold question: What if we didn’t need to melt metal down to recycle it?
That question is at the center of MetalMatter, a student-led Global Social Impact Fellowship team supported by the Office of Creative Inquiry. Focused on the Philippines, a country that imports 238,000 tonnes of new aluminum, with 27 percent exported as scrap, the students are exploring ways to reclaim value from metal waste while reducing emissions and supporting local industry.
“The core question is simple,” said Nicholas Rockwell, a research scientist at The Loewy Institute and a staff mentor on the project. “Can you effectively recycle, at scale, without melting?”
The team believes the answer may be yes.
With guidance from Rockwell and Wojtek Misiołek,Director of The Loewy Institute, and Loewy Professor of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE), students Valeria Carbajal Velez ’28, Siri Hellenbrand ’27, Pragnya Yerramalli ’28, Priya Blaise ’27, and Cherrie Ruan ’27 have been exploring friction extrusion.
This solid-state process uses mechanical pressure and rotation to consolidate aluminum. Unlike traditional smelting, friction extrusion eliminates the need for full melting and significantly reduces energy consumption.
During fieldwork in and around Manila this past summer, the team sourced scrap aluminum from machine shops in the Philippines and worked with ACE Tech Metal and the University of the Philippines Diliman to cast and machine test billets. They spent the Fall semester running proof-of-concept experiments at Lehigh, measuring strength and durability to determine whether these tubes made from scrap can meet performance standards.
Over the course of the previous summer, industrial aluminum scrap had been collected from a machine shop in the Philippines and cast into small billets. Through a collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) Applied Materials and Manufacturing group Chief Scientist and co-inventor of the Shear-Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE™) process –Dr. Scott Whalen–these small billets underwent processing through the ShAPE™-1 machine at PNNL, performed by PNNL summer research intern Katelynn Gelston. The thin-walled tubing which was produced through this friction extrusion process was then sent back to the MetalMatter students, who have been working with Lehigh MSE faculty, staff, and graduate students to perform metallography.
The project also examines recycling at a systems level. Using national data, the team is using R Shiny to build an interactive web application to map scrap collection sites, processing centers, and potential consolidation hubs. This tool is designed to help decision-makers identify the most effective locations to invest in lower-energy recycling infrastructure.
While the technology is not quite ready for large-scale production, the team’s research and work with their collaborative partners offers a foundation for future innovation.
“This experience really grounded me,” said Hellenbrand. “It taught me how to be patient with science. The work is slow, but the learning is real. I feel more confident, and more curious, than ever.”