Hydro starts up its new plant in Germany

Norway-based aluminium producer Hydro has commissioned its new €45 million ($51 million) secondary production facility in Neuss, Germany, that is equipped to melt up to 50,000 tonnes of used beverage containers (UBCs) annually.

The company’s Michael Peter Steffen says the new plant “is located in the heart of a growing can market, as Europeans now are using more than 30 billion cans a year.”

“Hydro’s facility in Neuss is the first to adopt a patented, advanced sorting technology for used beverage cans, able to process collected aluminum material with up to 20 percent impurities—making the new recycling line the best place to be for any used beverage can,” says Hydro President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg.

Secondary production in Neuss using UBCs will save 350,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year compared with use of primary aluminum, says Hydro.

“With the new recycling line, we offer our international customers a closed recycling loop, literally turning old cans into new cans,” said Executive Vice President Kjetil Ebbesberg at the May 5, 2016, opening ceremony. “This underlines our commitment to international can makers as a close, responsible partner, and a leader in technology.”

Ebbesberg and Brandtzæg officially opened the UBC recycling line together with Federal Minister Hermann Gröhe and Northrhine-Westphalian Economy Minister Garrelt Duin.

The plant in Neuss includes Hydro’s own patented sensor technology for sorting and separating the inbound scrap.