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On our road to decarbonizing our production, we at Novelis set ourselves ambitious goals. To achieve them, we are working relentlessly with our customers on developing new low-carbon alloys, collaborating with partners and academia, and joining R&D forces across our global plant network. With the aim of building a fully circular business and as part of our commitment to reducing our scope 1 and 2 emissions in operations at our Sierre plant, we established the Net Zero Lab. Together with a Swiss innovation and research hub as well as a local energy distributor, we are thus driving forward carbon neutral solutions for aluminium manufacturing.
In Feburary 2022, Novelis founded the Net Zero Lab Valais to develop carbon-neutral solutions for aluminium manufacturing together with OIKEN and HES-SO Valais-Wallis, in collaboration with EPFL. The lab focuses on identifying and implementing innovative solutions to neutralize the carbon footprint of Novelis’ manufacturing operations and neighboring communities, starting in Sierre. The Net Zero Lab is an accelerator for carbon neutral production for climate-neutral production and serves as a hub to merge research and development initiatives across several manufacturing sites of the company across the globe. Since its launch, there have already been numerous successful contributions on this decarbonization journey.
The team consists of 7 core members representing the collaboration partners as well as working students and subject matter experts. Net Zero Lab Valais is pleased to have attracted many talents from renowned universities within the region.
Lorenzo Aimone, EPFL, master project wood biomass; Réginald Germanier, Novelis NZLV leader; Pierre-Jean Duc, Oiken engineer, district heating; Cédric Dorsaz, HES-SO technician, district heating; Jessen Page, Professor HES-SO, district heating; François Maréchal, Professor EPFL, energy integration; Mohammad Andayesh, EPFL student, semester project furnaces heat-transfer model; Dareen Dardor, EPFL PHD; Daniel Florez Orrego, EPFL senior scientist; Manuele Margni, Professor HES-SO, life cycle assessment; Nour Boulos, EPFL, semester project coil cooling.
The Novelis Sierre site, the broader Valais region, and Switzerland itself are an ideal fit for the planned initiatives due to the availability of renewable energy and strong research institutions, as well as a firm commitment to sustainability. The Novelis Sierre plant employs more than 500 people and features a world-leading Research & Innovation Center specialized in the development of sustainable, low-carbon and innovative automotive sheet alloys, surface treatment, and joining technologies.
In its first year of operations, three decarbonization projects were rewarded with funds by the Swiss government. One project is dedicated to optimize the operation of furnaces, thus reducing the fuel consumption heating. It serves to define the ideal temperature profiles inside the furnaces. The second one investigates the biomass availability, the supply chain logistics and the optimal use of this renewable resource to decarbonize the aluminium remelting process. The third one aims to facilitate the introduction of a district heating within the region.
With the foundation of the Net Zero Lab Valais, a systemic study has been launched aiming at increasing the inherent efficiency of the process units and reusing waste heat of the plant´s operations as well as increasing the use of available renewable energy resources in the region. Different key performance indicators, such as energy efficiency, CO2 emissions, costs, and technology readiness levels, are used to evaluate the suitability of various technologies. These are modelized in a software tool to simulate scenarios in line with essential factors to consider.