Trends in Secondary Aluminum Casthouses

Traditionally, primary casthouses solidified the molten primary aluminum from the potlines into ingot or sow, or produced primary alloy ingots, billets or slabs.  Secondary casthouses served to convert scrap into secondary aluminum ingots, billets, or slabs. Today, the global trend to sustainability, circular economy - and therefore maximizing recycling and minimizing carbon footprint, has led to almost every casthouse needing to integrate scrap into its production mix. Secondary casthouses no longer solely produce higher impurity secondary alloys, but also high-quality ingots, billets and slabs with highest possible recycling content. This trend is changing the way we are recycling, the way we sort and treat scrap, and the way modern secondary casthouses need to be designed with energy efficiency, optimum recovery and metal quality in the focus. We are working on improving ideally closed-loop recycling where possible, and best possible integration of recycling content in aluminum products. Beside the input material, the melting step is the most energy and carbon intensive process in a secondary casthouse. Selecting the right furnace technology for each scrap type and available energy is therefore vital for maximizing recoveries and minimizing energy usage and carbon footprint. Numerous R&D projects are under way to improve scrap sorting and treatment, energy efficiency and recovery, up-cycling scrap into high quality alloys, and to develop alloys that can be made from the highest possible (ideally post-consumer) recycling content This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julioquintero.substack.com