Sortera Alloys program achieves 95 percent accuracy in sorting mixed aluminum scrap

The company’s recycling platform utilizes AI, data analytics and automated sensors to sort scrap metal.

Industrial scrap metal sorter Sortera Alloys Inc., Fort Wayne, Indiana, says it has achieved high-quality sorting of preproduction aluminum with more than 95 percent accuracy, using its recycling platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and advanced sensors.

The company says the results validate its technology platform, which consists of vision and other advanced hardware sensors driven by a software stack in both machine learning and AI that can handle complex sorting effectively and efficiently, specifically processing end-of-life mixed alloys by category and chemical composition. Sortera says this allows it to upcycle these materials back into the supply chain to be reused without losing the integrity and compound makeup of the materials, contributing to the circular economy of North America and lowering the carbon footprint and environmental impact to the planet.

RELATED: Sortera Alloys to expand

Sortera says its sorting platform sorts, captures and recycles existing streams of mixed aluminum scrap into high-quality aluminum end products. That aluminum scrap is then recirculated back into the manufacturing process to be used in high-value applications such as automotive cast and flat-rolled products and building, construction and aerospace extrusions. The company says its low-cost, highly scalable sorting process enables aluminum manufacturers to use roughly only 5 percent of the energy required to manufacture aluminum alloys from virgin material, enabling customers to reduce their CO2 footprint and pursue sustainability and circular production goals.

“Our technology platform produces extremely high-resolution datasets that include information such as size, shape, texture and chemical composition for every single piece of scrap that is processed,” company co-founder and Vice President of AI and Data Science Manuel Garcia, Jr., says. “The ability to resolve the aluminum alloy chemical composition within fractions of 1 percent, in real time, enables high classification sorting accuracies to be achieved.

“In this fashion, Sortera’s robotic industrial machinery can place each unique aluminum alloy into a different sorting bin, with a high throughput,” he says. “Sortation of the mixed scrap pieces into unique aluminum alloys enables novel circular economies in the automotive industry to be created, which does not currently exist in the North American market.”

Sortera’s expansion into its new 200,000-square-foot processing facility in Markle, Indiana, and its hiring of staff for that facility, are on track with processing ramping up in the first quarter of 2023, it says. The company says it aims to scale up its operations and capture a significant portion of the 4 billion pounds of scrap aluminum that have traditionally been shipped abroad for processing or downgraded into lower-quality secondary metals. Sortera says it is creating new scrap packages that have previously been unavailable due to lack of technology; alloy scrap that was previously downgraded can now be upgraded.

The new facility will be able to sort multiple alloys in one pass, the company claims.

“As we improve on our technology and processes, we are thrilled to learn that our team has recently sorted mixed aluminum with greater than 95 percent accuracy,” CEO Michael Siemer says. “The ability to recycle scrap alloy into high-purity recycled feedstock used in key industries not only ensures that we can provide our customers with the materials they need in their respective industries, but also establishes our role as a strong player in the circular economy as we make significant contributions to combating climate impact.”

Siemer adds, “Aluminum is one of the few industrial materials that can be infinitely recycled and reused if its scrap can be sorted with accuracy, and our technology platform has proven that it can. Once we complete our Markle facility, it will be a key component that will allow us to target the largest untapped source of aluminum scrap in the North America market, minimizing the need to mine virgin metals and ultimately eliminate the need to export this for processing into lower grade metals. Although our technology platform was developed for the aluminum industry, it has applications in other industries where novel circular economies can be created, such as in the plastics, textile, paper, agricultural and MSW industries.”

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