Norsk Hydro to boost UK low-carbon aluminium production

Norwegian energy company Norsk Hydro has revealed it will be boosting its aluminium recycling capacity at its Deeside plant in the UK by pumping £2.4 million (€2.8 million) in investment over the next year.

Hoping to boost its output to over 70,000 tonnes per year by Q1 2023, which has been hitherto limited by melting furnace capacity, the funding should see a roughly 10% - or 7,000 tonne - increase once production kicks back up again.

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Once recycled, the aluminium will be converted into Hydro CIRCAL, which the firm claims is made of around 75% recycled aluminium. Heavy recycling brings overall emissions down, which should help Hydro achieve a separate goal of launching its first wave of low-carbon aluminium in 2022. 

"With this investment Hydro Deeside will be able to process and recycle more complex types of post-consumer aluminium", said Trond Olaf Christophersen, Head of Recycling in Hydro Aluminium.

The investment should stand to remove production bottlenecks while increasing melting capacity for shredded aluminium, which should also stand to reduce material costs and decrease energy consumption at the plant.

“We will now be able to recycle more post-consumer aluminium scrap from our local market, reducing the reliance on import scrap", the Deeside plant's manager Wayne Clifton revealed in a statement.

"The project fits well with Hydro’s overall profitability and sustainability ambitions, with reduced energy consumption. We look forward to delivering even more value-added, low-carbon products to our customers", he added.

Hydro is hoping to double post-consumer aluminium scrap by 2025. By 2030, it hopes much of its aluminium produced will be carbon-neutral in a bid to completely decarbonise by 2050.

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The production capacity for near-zero carbon aluminium will be developed in line with market demand for this near zero-carbon aluminium, the company claims.

It will also be investing more heavily into carbon capture and storage systems (CCS) to be retrofitted into aluminium plants in operation, for which it has already developed a detailed roadmap.

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