ALCOA MOVES FORWARD IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY WITH RECYCLED ALUMINUM PRODUCED WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY

The multinational Alcoa continues to work on its ambitious project to reinvent the aluminum industry. And to achieve this, it seeks to innovate in order to change the way aluminum is produced in the long term. A clear example can be found at the Mosjøen foundry.

Located in northern Norway, the site has the company’s largest investment in recycling infrastructure. There, Alcoa completed the installation of a new furnace that now uses renewable energy to recycle aluminum scrap, saving energy and unlocking the infinite recyclability of the metal.

The project is a collaboration between Alcoa and MMG Aluminium, a German-based metals trading company that supplies Mosjøen with clean aluminum chips and shavings that have been compressed into briquettes. The induction furnace efficiently melts these briquettes and then pours the recycled aluminum to mix it with low-carbon aluminum from the smelter and various alloying materials, depending on the end-use applications.

The induction furnace is powered by renewable energy from wind and hydropower. Espen Breivik, induction furnace operator, performs routine inspections. Another curiosity is that Alcoa’s induction furnace was Alcoa’s largest return-seeking capital project in 2021, and was built in a record 10 months.

Induction furnace operator Serban Baci inspects aluminum alloy briquettes that were once scrap metal and will soon be sustainably recycled. Once molded into new shapes and sizes, recycled metal can be used for anything, such as beverage cans.

Guenter Strobel, CEO and founder of MMG Aluminum notes, “We have been working with the Mosjøen plant for more than 15 years and are happy to see our long and stable relationship grow with an increase in the site’s recycling capabilities,” adding, “We see Alcoa as the right partner for this project that combines green energy to run a new furnace with the high quality standard of products we get from Alcoa Mosjøen.”

Most of the furnaces operating around the world that melt scrap metal use natural gas burners that are installed in the walls and ceilings, which radiate heat onto the material placed in the center. In the case of Mosjøen’s induction furnace, it runs on electricity from wind and hydroelectric power and uses alternating current passing through a resistive coil, generating heat. That heat melts the scrap and impurities are removed before the pure aluminum is poured through the furnace’s tilting mechanism.

The new infrastructure can melt aluminum scrap with 100 percent renewable energy, avoiding approximately 4,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year by not using a traditional natural gas-fired furnace. This is the equivalent of taking about 1,000 cars with internal combustion engines off the road. Since scrap that is recycled has a reduced footprint throughout its life cycle, the total carbon footprint of the melted product is drastically reduced.

The oven is loaded, cared for and cleaned robotically by an automatic system. The latest security features help detect any unsupervised movement from a fully automated operating room. The induction furnace can operate semi-autonomously, given the wide range of sensors and guidance systems. This is particularly useful when mixing scrap with primary aluminum to perfectly meet the customer’s needs. By analyzing the scrap and performing advance calculations, the customer’s requirements are fully met in terms of purity, alloy content and any specific needs.

The closed-loop induction furnace is just one of many methods Alcoa is working to advance the production of low-carbon solutions, including the technology roadmap for the future and the existing Sustana product line that can help customers reduce their carbon footprint.