Abengoa's Befesa Division Inks Novelis Deal

Befesa, based in Seville, Spain, has signed an agreement with the aluminum manufacturer Novelis to handle the aluminum dross generated at an aluminum recycling facility that Novelis is building in Nachterstedt, Germany. Befesa is the industrial waste recycling division of Abengoa.

To handle the dross, Abengoa has announced plans to build an aluminium recycling plant in Bernburg, Germany, which is expected to cost around €30 million (US$39.2 million). The company hopes to complete construction on the facility by the first quarter of 2014. When done, Abengoa will have nine recycling plants in Europe. Combined, the company will have total processing capacity of 1 million metric tons of aluminum waste (about 400,000 metric tons of scrap, slag and aluminum chips and 600,000 metric tons of salt slag).

When fully operational, the Abengoa facility will produce 50,000 metric tons of aluminium casting alloys and, in addition, by recovering the aluminium, will manage all of the Novelis plant’s aluminum dross. The dross and scrap aluminum will be returned to Novelis where it will be recycled into laminated products.