Axion joins aluminum recycling project

United Kingdom-based Axion has announced joining a collaborative project designed to examine ways to increase the use of recycled-content aluminum in new vehicles. Axion’s role in the group, called REcycled ALuminium through Innovative TechnologY (REALITY), will be to provide advice on strategies such as techniques for sorting and separating alloys and other metals including zinc, copper and brass from the aluminum in end-of-life vehicles.

REALITY is a £2 million ($2.8 million) project led by vehicle maker Jaguar Land Rover. The project is partly funded by Innovate UK, a government agency designed to support businesses with the potential for commercial success. REALITY is an extension of the REALCAR (REcycled ALuminium CAR) project, initially launched by Jaguar Land Rover in 2008 to create a closed-loop process for post-industrial aluminum scrap from its manufacturing processes.

The original project and subsequent work with suppliers enabled Jaguar Land Rover to reclaim more than 75,000 metric tons of aluminum scrap and re-use it in the aluminum production process in 2016 and 2017. The three-year REALITY project is intended to follow up on this earlier work.

“The REALITY project will refine the process of turning aluminum from end-of-life cars into new vehicles,” says Richard McKinlay, Axion’s head of circular economy. “It will continue to deliver significant sustainability benefits, with aluminum recycling requiring up to 95 percent less energy than primary aluminum production.”

Axion has indicated it will evaluate and optimize sensor-based sorting technologies by collaborating with Novelis, Norton Aluminium, Warwick Manufacturing Group, Brunel University and Innoval Technology.