Recycling, a significant factor in the supply of many of the metals used in daily life provides environmental benefits in terms of energy saving, reduced volumes of waste, and reduced pollutants emission. Market for aluminum products is fast expanding and the demand can be met by either increased production or efficient recycling. In general, there is no limit to the number of times that aluminum can be recycled, and doing so uses 95 percent less energy than producing aluminum from ore. Aluminum scrap from aerospace and commercial applications is melted and cast into ingots. However recycling does not produce high purity aluminum, thus requiring additional processing step to produce high purity aluminum.

 Recycling of aluminum based materials via electrolysis in ionic liquids at low temperature was developed. The electrolytic melt comprised of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl) and anhydrous AlCl₃. Aluminum based material such as Al-MMC (Duralcan^Ò, Al-380, 20 vol. % SiC) was electrochemically dissolved at the anode and pure aluminum (>98%) was deposited on a copper cathode. The influence of experimental parameters such as concentration of electrolyte, and applied cell voltage on the efficiency of aluminum metal matrix composite recycling was studied at 103±2ºC. High applied voltages and concentration of AlCl₃ yielded high current densities. Current densities obtained during this process were in the range of 200–500A/m² and current efficiencies in the range of 70–90%. The deposits were characterized by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractrometer, mass spectrometer, and atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Characteristics of the deposited microstructure ranging from columnar to spherical were obtained. Energy consumption was in the range of 3.2–6.7 kWh/kg-Al for the experimental conditions studied. The optimum conditions obtained in the present investigation for maximum current efficiency and least energy consumption with uniform deposit microstructure were low applied voltage and intermediate electrolyte concentration. Low energy consumption and no emission of pollutants are the two main advantages of this process compared to the current recycling processes.