Innovative sorting facility for the circularity of aluminium scraps

As the second most widely used metal in the world (only after iron), aluminium plays a key role in realizing the circular economy and the climate neutrality of both EU and our world.

In essence, aluminium has the potential to be a fully circular material that can be repeatedly recycled without losing its properties.

However, many recycled aluminium scraps of EU are currently contaminated with high-level impurities, which make them not suitable for reuse. This causes a loss of around one million tonnes of scraps per year in EU and hinders the achievement of circularity. This project will develop an innovative facility for the automated sorting of high-quality aluminium scraps.

The facility will be based on three innovative technologies, i.e., singulation, multi-sensor system and ejection.

It will be developed with an interdisciplinary approach that combines particle technology, computational modelling, advanced sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and automation.

Through a close collaboration with an industrial partner Reukema, the developed technologies will be carefully validated and integrated into a sorting facility at an industrially applicable scale (e.g., at least 4 tons per hour of clean sorted and specified scrap alloys).

The completion of the project will constitute a big advancement in the circularity of aluminium scraps, and will contribute to the substantial reduction of resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.