TransForum Vol. 3, No. 1

ARGONNE PREDICTS BENEFITS OF ALUMINUM-INTENSIVE VEHICLES

At the Paris Exposition of 1855, as part of the rich and varied displays of France's evolving industrialized culture, visitors were introduced to a light, shiny "precious metal" that would revolutionize modern living: aluminum.

Today, aluminum is no less precious than it was in 1855. From airplanes to pop cans, aluminum is an integral part of our daily lives. Aluminum is energy-intensive to produce from scratch, but Argonne researchers have recently found that - when it is recycled and reused in automotive applications - aluminum may yield some very attractive performance and environmental advantages over conventional steel.

Using life-cycle analysis, or LCA, Argonne's Frank Stodolsky and Linda Gaines have shown that aluminum-intensive vehicles, or AIVs, offer consumers key benefits: better fuel economy and handling because of reduced weight, plus a body that will not rust. "At a larger scale," explains Gaines, "our nation's economy would benefit by increasing the number of AIVs on the road because we would cut our consumption of petroleum; by reducing petroleum consumption, we would see lower emissions and cleaner air."

Assuming widespread commercialization of AIVs, Argonne's LCA projects that the United States should see petroleum energy savings of over 2% as soon as 2005 and 4.6% by 2030. Says Gaines, "Our study assumed constant engine performance, but engine technology keeps advancing and fuel economy keeps improving, particularly as vehicles become lighter." These improvements will further bolster the projected benefits of aluminum-intensive cars, particularly improvements in fuel economy.

The benefits do not end at improved fuel economy. Inch for inch, AIVs are between 20 and 30% lighter than conventional steel vehicles, and they are equally safe. Explains Stodolsky, "An AIV will be just as safe as a steel car because it can be engineered with ample crush zones." Other benefits most obvious to consumers - as demonstrated by Argonne's on-site AIV Mercury Sable, which has accumulated 60,000 miles - include a durable body and improved fuel efficiency, compared with the conventional Sable.

Argonne researchers began their LCA by using a vehicle choice model to project market shares for various lightweight-vehicle options. The clear winner was the AIV. Explains Stodolsky, "Our study showed that the carbon fiber composite, another leading candidate lightweight material, was too costly for full fleet use, even assuming heroic reductions are possible in material production and manufacturing costs." Then, Argonne considered such key energy variables as vehicle fuel consumption, material production energy, and recycling energy. "In short," says Stodolsky, "we concluded that there is a net energy savings with the use of AIVs."

In the near term, however, using unrecycled aluminum is expensive, and at present, its large-scale use is limited to expensive specialty, luxury, or high-performance vehicles, not the types of cars most people drive every day. "All-aluminum-bodied cars are still rarities on today's roads and highways," notes Stodolsky. Over the long term, though, recycling wrought aluminum back to wrought aluminum saves even more energy than recycling other widely used vehicle materials. Ongoing advances in aluminum manufacturing and assembly technologies almost ensure that the cost of AIVs will drop to a point at which consumers have more vehicle choices than they do now.