The comminution of Al scrap was investigated under different processing conditions to assess its ability to tailor powders for the powder metallurgy (PM) industry. Specifically, the influence of the circumferential velocity and ventilation power over the properties of the pulverized particles was highlighted. These parameters controlled the residence time and deformation experienced by the feedstock chips, which, in turn, governed the size, morphology and composition of the pulverized particles. The pulverized chips consisted of heavily passivated oxide-dispersion strengthened (ODS) particles with varying contents of Fe, Si and Mn, depending on the extent of oxygen accumulation and contaminants embedding taking place during comminution. Upon screening, the 140 mesh pulverized powders were also characterized. The passivation layer thickness and Al2O3 dispersoids content of these powders ranged, respectively, from 6.81 +/- 0.31 nm to 758 +/- 038 nm and from 2.13 +/- 0.11 wt% to 5.20 +/- 0.11 wt% as circumferential velocity decreased, while they ranged from 4.96 +/- 0.41 nm to 8.67 +/- 036 nm and from 2.02 +/- 0.09 wa to 7.12 +/- 0.09 wt% as ventilation power decreased. These tendencies highlighted that the oxygen enrichment process occurring during comminution changed from a passivation layer thickening regime to an Al2O3 dispersoids accumulation regime, for a residence time of similar to 210 s. Furthermore, all pulverized powders contained nanograins whose fractions depended on the comminution parameters used. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.