Turkish Airlines Helps GE Recycle Rare Element

Turkish Airlines is the first airline to participate in GE Aviation's new scrap material reclamation program, which focuses on recycling high-pressure turbine blades in jet engines to recover nickel superalloys which contain the very rare element rhenium. Credit: Airbus S.A.S.

Turkish Airlines is the first customer to participate in a new material scrap reclamation program that each year should help jet-engine manufacturer GE Aviation reclaim thousands of pounds of temperature-resistant superalloys containing the rare element rhenium.

Under the program launched by Turkish Airlines, GE Aviation will contract for customers to return their scrap high-pressure turbine (HPT) blades made from nickel superalloys containing rhenium, which GE says is one of the rarest elements on Earth. GE will clean and melt the material and re-use it in HPT blade manufacturing.

GE Aviation began the program in February 2007 at its engine service facilities, aiming to recycle scrap HPT blades in the engines it was contracted to maintain. Before then, GE had sold its scrap material to a company that recycled the material for use in the stainless-steel industry, and key rare elements needed for critical aviation hardware such as HPT blades were lost.

In 2007, GE Aviation was able to reduce its need for new rhenium by 1 percent as a result of the scrap HPT blade reclamation program. The company says it is now in talks with several other airlines that are interested in participating in the scrap-HPT reclamation program and GE Aviation expects to be able to reduce its need for new rhenium by 10 percent this year.

"We've recovered hundreds of pounds and we're looking at thousands of pounds this year," said GE Aviation spokeswoman Deborah Case.

"The program helps our customer as well as GE Aviation's material stream," said Scott Ernest, vice president of GE Aviation's Supply Chain Organization. "For our customers, like Turkish Airlines, the program will help them with their environmental efforts as well as help reduce the costs associated with material disposal. For GE, it will help us reduce our need for rhenium, which is a rare and costly element."

Rhenium is derived from copper ore that contains molybdenite and is a by-product of copper production. After the molybdenite is extracted during refining of the copper ore, the molybdenite is further refined and rhenium is recovered. On average, according to GE, it takes some 120 tons of copper ore to produce 1 ounce of rhenium.

GE began using rhenium-containing alloys about 20 years ago in making jet-engine turbine blades. The alloys, René N5 and DS René 142, were able to withstand higher temperatures and allowed engineers to design engines with increased turbine-inlet gas temperatures, while at the same time needing to use less cooling air for turbine blades and vanes. This reduced engine fuel consumption and produced increased thrust.

Nickel-superalloy HPT blades containing rhenium feature in many of GE's major commercial and military jet-engine families, including the CF6 and CFM56 families of commercial jet engines. The CFM56 family, made by the CFM International joint venture between GE and France's Snecma, is the best-selling jet engine of all time.

Turkish Airlines will participate in GE's scrap-HPT blade reclamation program through its maintenance and engineering subsidiary Turkish Technic, which holds an ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard Certificate.

Having launched the scrap-reclamation program for HPT blades, GE is planning to expand it to other jet-engine parts.

"We'll get the rhenium issued covered and then we will see what else we can recycle," said Case. GE Aviation is interested in recycling scrap life-limited engine parts too, she said.

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