Ceit drives the sustainable production and reuse of aluminum in Europe
30 | 09 | 2024
Ceit participates in the European project ReCal, whose goal is to inaugurate a new era of sustainable production and reuse of aluminum in a framework of Economics circular.
The technology center will develop a pilot for the automated dismantling of Structures aircraft using technologies such as robotics, machine vision and artificial intelligence.
Aluminum is essential to European industry, with applications in sectors such as transport, construction, packaging and consumer goods. In addition, its use is core topic to meet European green targets, especially in transport and construction, due to its ability to lighten Structures. However, primary aluminum production generates a significant environmental impact, accounting for 2% of global emissions in 2020. Added to this is the challenge of recycling it, as aluminum alloys, once mixed with other metals, are difficult to separate, complicating their recycling.
It is estimated that by 2050 there will be 18.3 million tons of non-reusable "surplus scrap", which will generate up to 260 million tons of CO2 by primary substitution. With the goal to avoid this scenario and maximize aluminum recycling, ReCal is born. project ReCal.
A solution for the entire aluminum value chain
RecAl adopts a global approach to leverage this valuable secondary resource . The project strategically addresses all phases of circular production and challenges along the entire aluminum value chain. Its objectives include increasing tolerance to impurities in the design of alloys, leveraging the benefits of digitalization and attendance robotics in sorting and disassembly, creating recycling streams with greatly improved purities, adapting production paradigms to harness the full potential of secondary resources, and harmonizing communication between all sectors of the aluminum industry.
A key focus of project will be to advance 14 technology solutions to TRL6 level, which will be integrated into ReCal Hub, an interactive, socio-technical and digital platform that will foster partnership throughout the value chain.
Paper of Ceit
At framework of project, the technology center Ceit will develop a pilot for the automated dismantling of Structures aeronautics using technologies such as robotics, artificial vision and artificial intelligence. The dismantling will consist of extracting and separating the Structures containing aluminum alloys of different compositions, facilitating their recycling without impurity mixtures.
In this way, as explained by Diego Borro, researcher , head of the Vision and Robotics team at Ceit and manager of project, "we will analyze the feasibility of creating a new recycling flow that is more efficient and different from the current one, which consists of crushing and mixing all the alloys".
European consortium to lead the way in aluminum recycling
The initiative has obtained significant backing with EU funding of 10.6 million euros from the Horizon Europe program and brings together 19 partners from 9 European countries, coordinated by AIT-LKR.
Together with Ceit, the consortium includes RTDS Association, AELS, Alumil, ALOIMYL, Benteler, Ferimet (Celsa Group), The Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, DLR, Fraunhofer LBF, Gebauer & Griller Kabelwerke, CANCOM, KU Leuven, LEITAT, Stena Aluminium, Swerim, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Universita degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia and ALTEK.
In this way, ReCal is positioned as a project pioneer in the development of advanced technologies for the Economics circular aluminum, setting the instructions for a more sustainable and efficient production of this critical resource .
