RecAL launches as European effort to boost aluminum recycling

The Vienna-based Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) is leading a European Union project known as RecAL that focuses on sustainability, the circular economy and resource efficiency in the aluminum industry.

RecAL, or recycling technologies for circular aluminum, aims to develop innovative recycling technologies and a digital platform for a circular aluminum economy.

Some RecAL funding has come from the EU’s Horizon Europe program, while additional support comes from 19 partner organizations from nine European countries with coordination provided by AIT subsidiary the Leichtmetallkompetenzzentrum Ranshofen (LKR).

Recycling aluminum from existing scrap holds "enormous" potential and requires only five percent of the energy needed to produce primary material,” AIT says, and the RecAL project aims to exploit the potential of this raw material in an environmentally friendly and efficient way, in line with the European Green Deal.

“RecAL aims to fully exploit the immense potential of secondary aluminum resources in Europe, revolutionize recycling processes, address key challenges in alloy development and promote sustainable practices,” LKR project manager Gerald Prantl says.

The group says one of the major challenges in recycling aluminum occurs when the metal is alloyed with a variety of other elements that are “virtually impossible” to separate again. The current practice of mixing different scrap alloys “inevitably leads to downcycling and a reduction in available feedstock."

Nonetheless, forecasters predict that in Europe by 2050, secondary aluminum should account for 49 percent of total aluminum production on the continent. “However, this potential resource needs a central hub,” AIT says of RecAL's role.

Backers of RecAL list several challenges it will strive to address, including: identifying secondary alloys with higher impurity tolerances without compromising properties; exploiting the benefits of digitalization and robotics in sorting and dismantling; the creation of scrap streams with improved purity; and improved communication between all sectors of the aluminum industry.

A list of members of the RecAL consortium can be found here.