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11 Feb 2022 | 19:06 UTC
By Nick Lazzaro
Highlights
New shredding, sorting methods aid higher PCS usage
Aims to boost post-consumer scrap use by 20%-30% in segment
Norsk Hydro is implementing new infrastructure across its North American aluminum extrusion footprint over the next four years to increase its use of post-consumer scrap in the production of secondary aluminum billet and extrusions.
The investments in Hydro's facilities will include upgrades to scrap shredding and sorting methods for the more efficient recovery of aluminum from multi-alloy PCS sources, such as used automobiles, said Charles Straface, president of the company's North American extrusion segment.
"Once we do that shredding of a car and sort out all the metals and non-aluminum material, then we'll have the ability to sort different aluminum alloys into piles, and then we put them into bunkers," Straface said in a recent interview with S&P Global Platts, adding that the bunkers will facilitate a more effective segregation of different alloys.
"Now we can really reach deeper into the pile and use more and more post-consumer scrap," he said.
Straface said Hydro is also adding advanced fume collection systems, called baghouses, to its melting furnaces that will treat pollutants generated by "more dirty scrap." This will equip the furnaces to safely process greater volumes of PCS such as painted aluminum and construction materials.
One of the major upgrades will commence this year at Hydro's casting plant in The Dalles, Oregon.
Hydro's North American extrusion segment currently produces 1.6 billion lb/year of secondary aluminum billet using about 75% recycled scrap content in its overall raw material mix, making it the largest recycled billet caster in the US. The unit consumes most of the billet internally to produce extrusions, and it holds about a 23% share in the North American extrusion market, according to Straface.
"Post-consumer scrap comprises approximately 20% of purchased scrap inputs for our remelt operations in North America extrusions," he said. "We are looking to increase that figure by 20%-30% by 2030."
Norway-based Hydro also operates two additional recycled aluminum cast houses in the US under a separate business unit, with a third facility now under construction in Michigan. The Michigan facility will also be equipped with the baghouse and bunker infrastructure and produce the company's CIRCAL billet brand, which uses over 75% PCS.
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