2024-08-28 06:30:00
The development of a circular economy around aluminium will, among other things, make it possible to process aluminium waste in our country, which is still currently sent abroad for processing.
The first French foundry capable of recycling all types of aluminium waste is being built in Vendée. The Coralium plant, which should come into service next year, will be able to process 40,000 tonnes of aluminium per year. Previously, this waste was taken out of our territory to be recycled, sometimes on the other side of the world. Before being resold in the form of billets to French manufacturers using aluminium as a raw material. An economic and ecological aberration, to which Coralium must provide the beginnings of an answer. The project, initiated jointly by the Liébot family group, which produces industrial windows and façades made from aluminium, and the Corre group, manager of Fineiral, should help develop a circular economy around aluminium in France, the country that invented the industrial aluminium manufacturing process.
Christian Chevrel, General Manager of upstream activities of the Liébot group[1]explained to Techniques de l’Ingénieur the strategy behind the development of the Coralium recycling plant.
Engineering Techniques: What is the thinking behind the decision to develop the Coralium plant?
Christian Chevrel : This aluminum recycling plant project was not originally planned. To return to the context, it is important to know that the Liébot group has been showing strong growth for a long time, which has not weakened over time. My job as purchasing director has long consisted of finding new suppliers, with the group’s stated desire to find them locally, not necessarily for ecological reasons, but more for economic common sense. Today, with CSR and environmental issues, we can say that this desire was avant-garde.
Then there is the problem of the deindustrialization of France, which also affects aluminum. I have witnessed the disappearance of many aluminum extrusion plants, while the need for aluminum profiles was growing.
For a while I was looking for investors to support us as suppliers and invest in our factories because in terms of logistics, the costs are significant. Three factories have thus come to settle in the west of France.
We then set up a very large factory in Lyon. This entire ecosystem that we had built in the west of France had to be replicated in the east to support this new production tool. The problem that arose was that it was becoming difficult to find investors. We were able to invest in an aluminum extrusion factory. This corresponded perfectly to our desire to invest locally, but also to the integration of a profession and know-how, and to the securing of our supplies.
Subsequently, we also realized that we had a problem with the supply of raw materials, and in particular access to low-carbon aluminum. This was a brake on our environmental strategy. Aluminum waste has a high value, it is now collected and sent to foundries, but there are very few industrial means in France in terms of waste treatment, and in fact very few foundries in our territory.
What happens to the aluminum waste produced on French territory?
Today this raw material is leaving our territory even though it has incredible value, because the transformation of waste into aluminium billets is a process which only represents 5% of the total energy expended compared to what we will consume when we return to a production circuit using primary aluminium.
It is exported to Italy, Spain, Belgium, China as well… to return in the form of billets to France!
Around 2019, the first difficulties in aluminium supplies appeared, with very significant price variations. The group Liébot had 3,000 tonnes of aluminium waste that was normally resold, so I decided that the group would retain ownership of it, because it would have been a shame to part with it, given its value. I found a foundry in Belgium that was able to transform this waste into billets, which came back to us and which I delivered to my suppliers, and in particular to the partner that we brought with us on the Coralium project.
Following this, we further considered finding partners, and even investing ourselves. We therefore embarked on the project of a low-carbon foundry, integrating the sorting, selection and waste treatment businesses on the same site, to materialize our ambition in terms of performance and relevance of processes. Integrating the latter limits logistics costs, and good management and identification of supplies allows us to be more efficient in terms of energy consumption and in the carbon rate that will be present throughout the chain.
Coralium is in this respect a unique project in France. Then, there is also the desire to bring partners with us. Our extrusion plant is in the east of France, we have partners who are in the west, in particular one where we are largely in the majority, in any case present as customer number 1. The idea is to encourage industrial players to support us, to be able to capture their volumes, and to say to ourselves that this foundry project will serve our group, but also other players in the sector.
What are your objectives in terms of volumes of recycled aluminum?
Originally, the project was for 20,000 tonnes of aluminium, which covered our needs, but in the end we doubled this target to 40,000 tonnes. This increase in volume gives us greater capacity to absorb this investment of 42 million euros. Also, our first supplier will have access to this material which will belong to us, but we will also be able to sell it to other market players.
Industrial players who extrude aluminium generate 20% of waste, so it is in their best interest to send us this waste, which will allow them to buy billets locally and reduce the carbon footprint of their activity.
Ultimately, the only profession that is not integrated into the life cycle of aluminum through the Coralium project is waste collection?
Absolutely. It already exists. Aluminum is never buried, it is infinitely recyclable without losing its mechanical properties. This collection business already exists and it is efficient, so we do not intend to break it, but rather to rely on the collectors, by being a solution for them. Rather than collecting this waste and selling it in Spain or Belgium, we offer them a more local solution, here in Vendée. I insist on the importance of setting up aluminum recycling on a local scale. Today, a company that does not think in terms of closed loops is a little out of step with the times. As soon as you start exporting aluminum waste, the traceability of aluminum becomes very complicated, so it becomes impossible to set up a closed recycling loop.
Is the fact that aluminium is easily recyclable a determining factor in establishing a closed recycling loop?
Very clearly, it is much simpler. But the idea is also to transform it virtuously. A billet that comes out of the coralium factory will present no difference with a billet that would come from primary aluminum.
Aluminum recycling is now perfectly controlled, and this is necessarily reassuring for customers, since the quality is the same.
Technically, what have you put in place to recycle aluminum in the most virtuous way possible?
The goal is to have the best carbon performance for these billets. In terms of energy, we use gas because it is the only energy available in quantity. This does not prevent us from working on other solutions, particularly hydrogen. We want to have the most energy-efficient production method. So there will be a lot of work on the machines, the design, the recycling of energy, but also the raw material that we will put in the furnaces. Indeed, it is essential to supply our furnaces with aluminum that is as raw as possible, in order not to generate waste.
To do this, we need to control as much as possible the composition of what we are going to put in the furnaces. Today, on batches of 25 to 30 tonnes that are currently melted in a traditional foundry, there are two stages: first the batch passes into a first melting furnace, then into a second, called a holding furnace, to prepare the casting.
In this second furnace, we will take a sample to analyze it by spectrophotometry. This will allow us to know the metallurgical composition of our batch. Sometimes, we will be forced to add components, such as silicon or aluminum, and sometimes some components will be in too great a quantity. The only solution when there are too great a quantity of components is to add primary aluminum, which is heavily loaded with carbon.
Thus, the more we control the composition of our aluminum waste, the less primary aluminum we need to add to make new billets, and the more decarbonized the latter are.
Also, to have a keen knowledge of the origin of our waste, we need to accumulate as much information as possible on its composition. To do this, automated X-ray machines will be installed within the Coralium plant, which will look at the composition of the alloy for each waste, to be able to remove all the alloys that do not interest us. After this sorting, the selected waste will pass through a furnace stripping at 400°C to eliminate all remaining residues. At the exit of this chain of strippingwe obtain raw aluminum, the composition of which we control almost perfectly. In order to ultimately have to add as little primary material as possible, and have aluminum billets that are as decarbonized as possible.
Was the financial support from the France 2030 programme decisive in finalising the Coralium project?
Determinant no, since the project was already launched on a volume of 20,000 tonnes, on the foundry aspect. We said to ourselves that this was not enough and that it was necessary to integrate the waste treatment part, by integrating the best practices of the moment, which significantly increased the budget.
Then France 2030 arrived and helped us a lot. It also corresponded to a time when all materials, steel, structural work, were undergoing strong inflation. Also, there were many foundry projects across the planet, which contributed to overinflation on this type of project. In this sense, France 2030 allowed us to absorb this contextual additional cost and move to a processing volume of 40,000 tonnes per year. Without France 2030, we would probably have remained on targets of 20,000 tonnes. The project would not have been blocked, but conducted on a smaller scale, with less efficient machines.
Why has the development of a circular economy for aluminium, given the relative simplicity of its recycling, not been considered earlier by industrial players?
It is above all the financial risk, with a long-term return on investment, which has long dampened the enthusiasm of the industrial players in the aluminium sector. Afterwards, there is also a bit of a wait-and-see attitude. As leaders in our market, at the French and even European level, we could not wait. A leader must set an example. If its upstream market does not move enough and does not provide it with solutions, it is up to it to go there. It was necessary to move the lines and not wait for it to happen by itself.
Interview by Pierre Thouverez
[1] Liébot Group
1724847200
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