ALRO S.A., one of the largest vertically integrated aluminum producers in Europe, inaugurated the second stage of its Eco Recycling Facility in Slatina, Romania. The new recycling area includes a US$11 million investment in technology and environment protection equipment.
“While the very challenging business environment forced us to adapt our development plans to maintain our position on the international market, one strategic direction remained unchanged, namely our commitment to increase efficiency and reduce overall consumption, and the investment in the Eco Recycling Facility supports these plans,” said Marian Năstase, chairman of the ALRO board of directors. “We are determined to continue our efforts to diversify our products portfolio, increase efficiency and reduce environmental footprint.”
The specific electricity consumption of aluminum scrap recycling is 95% lower than the consumption recorded for electrolytic aluminum production, which positively impacts the overall production costs — while also contributing to a circular and low-carbon economy. With the aim of shifting away from the use of primary aluminum toward the use of scrap material inputs, ALRO commissioned the first stage of its Eco Recycling Facility in 2013. At the time, the plant consisted of one double chamber furnace, one induction furnace, one holding furnace, and a related fume collection and treatment plant.
The company has continued with this strategy with stage two of the Eco Recycling Facility, completed in 2023. As part of the expansion, the company has added two double-chamber furnaces, one holding furnace, and a dedicated fume collection and treatment plant. This will increase recycling capacity at the facility to around 60,000 tonnes per year.
With this investment, the company is taking an important step into a low emission world, as it plans to constantly increase its aluminum scrap recycling capacity and will soon reach 100,000 tonnes per year of recycled aluminum. The project will also support ALRO’s strategic decision to reduce the dependency on and consumption of electric power natural gas and increase value-added production. In addition, the state-of-the-art technology used will enable the plant to maintain emissions below the levels approved by the European Union.