Constellium SE is leading a new consortium of automakers and their suppliers to develop lower carbon, lower cost aluminum extrusion alloys. The Circular and Constant Aluminium (CirConAl) project aims to improve how industry manages scrap aluminum in order to maximize the use of post-consumer scrap in a new generation of high-strength alloys that emit less than 2 tons of CO2 per ton of aluminum produced. This will support the development of an end-to-end supply chain for zero-emissions vehicles in the UK.
CirConAl is a joint government and industry project, which is sponsored by a £5 million in government grant from the UK’s Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and £5 million in industry funding.
“Low carbon solutions require collaboration across the supply chain and Constellium is proud to lead the CirConAl project in partnership with the APC, automakers, and suppliers as the industry works toward carbon neutrality,” said Philippe Hoffmann, president of Constellium’s Automotive Structures & Industry Business Unit. “Taking advantage of Constellium’s high-strength HSA6® aluminum extrusion alloys, as well as new scrap sorting and blending technologies, we expect this next generation of alloys to provide automakers with ultra-low embodied CO2 material to drastically reduce the carbon footprint of their products.”
By designing, developing, prototyping, and testing aluminum automotive components at scale, the project is expected to demonstrate that high-strength alloys with high recycled content can meet or exceed OEM requirements, such as strength, crushability, durability, and other performance criteria. Together, the partners would also develop scrap sorting technologies to ensure that valuable metal is recycled into new automotive solutions rather than down-cycled, preserving its value and contributing to a circular economy.
Aluminum extrusions and components for the CirConAl project will be prototyped and tested at Constellium’s University Technology Center (UTC) located at Brunel University London. The UTC is a center of excellence for the development of aluminum crash management systems, body structure components, and battery enclosures for electric vehicles. Its industrial scale casting and extrusion equipment allows for rapid prototyping, reducing development times by at least 50% for the advanced alloys required to lightweight automotive components.