Hydro is forming a joint venture with PADNOS, a Midwest leader in recycling and scrap management, to enable more upcycling of post-consumer aluminum scrap. Named Alusort LLC, the 50/50 joint venture will industrialize Hydro’s proprietary sorting technology, HySort®, bringing it to the U.S. market.
“Digging deeper into the scrap pile and returning more aluminium to the cycle not only contributes to reducing emissions and nature impact — it’s also good business,” said Hilde Merete Aasheim. president and CEO of Hydro. “Alusort represents an exciting opportunity for both companies to strengthen our leading positions in recycling. With our state-of-the-art sorting technology, the joint venture can handle the most mixed and challenging scrap types that otherwise would have ended up in landfills. Instead, we bring it back to life as value-added, low-carbon products for the automotive, building and construction, and other key aluminum end markets.”
Jonathan Padnos, president and CEO of PADNOS, added, “At PADNOS, we look for the next generation of recycling in all materials we handle, from ferrous metals to plastics to aluminum. Collaboration and market demand play critical roles in innovation. Hydro is the perfect partner for us to take aluminum recycling to the next level with our Alusort joint venture.”
HySort is an advanced sorting technology utilizing laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) that allows Hydro to dig deeper into the scrap pile to conserve aluminum that would otherwise end up in landfills. The technology was developed in Europe and is currently used at Hydro’s recycling hub in Dormagen, Germany.
Alusort will launch at PADNOS’ existing sorting hub in Granville, Michigan, where the two companies plan to install a HySort sorting machine through a US$4 million investment from Hydro. PADNOS personnel will run the daily operations, with Hydro personnel providing technical support as well as oversight of the activities.
Once it starts up in 2024, Alusort will be able to sort up to 20,000 tonnes of aluminum scrap per year. This scrap will mainly be supplied to Hydro’s aluminum recycling plants in Cassopolis, Michigan, and Henderson, Kentucky. It may also supply other Hydro facilities in the U.S. and Canada. Other metal fractions will be sold to third parties.
Access to post-consumer scrap is becoming increasingly important for aluminum recycling companies like Hydro in the U.S. When cars, buildings, or electronic equipment have reached their end-of-life, the materials used in these products can either end up in landfills or be put to good use through recycling. HySort technology enables recovery of specific aluminum alloys from these obsolete products, helping return that material back to the same or similar applications for a new useful life.
In particular, Alusort is important for large-scale production of Hydro CIRCAL, an aluminum brand that contains at least 75% post-consumer aluminum scrap, as certified by third-party auditors DNV. It has a market leading CO2 footprint of just 2.3 kg CO2e per kg aluminum or less.
Recently, Hydro celebrated the official opening of its new recycling plant in Cassopolis, just 18 months after breaking ground at the site. The company expects to produce 265 million lbs (120,000 tonnes) of aluminum extrusion ingot per year at the site. Although Hydro has 11 recycling plants in the U.S. and one in Canada, Cassopolis is the first to serve as a large-scale producer of CIRCAL.
“With Alusort, we will introduce our next-generation recycling technology, pioneered in Europe, to capture additional value from upstream sorting activities in the U.S.,” said Aasheim. “We’ll get access to more scrap types and expand our portfolio of high-quality recycled automotive alloys to our most demanding customers. AluSort is a key contributor and enabler for large-scale production of Hydro CIRCAL.”