Recycling is the best option to deliver low carbon, energy efficient aluminium to the market

The 18^th of May Emilio Braghi, Executive Vice President, Novelis and President, Novelis Europe, gave a keynote presentation at 27^th World Aluminium Conference. In a phase of energy transition, the pace at which Europe must decarbonize is accelerating. This will create an even more intense pull on renewable energy, especially on electricity.

The production of low carbon primary aluminium is a big step to lower carbon emissions, but still requires the same high amount of energy. Whereas aluminium recycling emits not only the least emissions – it’s also a very energy efficient process, saving around 95% of the energy used in primary production.

Emilio Braghi calls for an enabling political framework to promote circularity. To increase scrap availability, there is the need to set up systems that incentivize circular products as well as investments in better collection and sorting facilities. All players in the market need to commit and to join efforts in implementing closed-loop recycling systems and in developing high recycled content and uni-alloys. To advance on this joint roadmap, technology and innovation are key. Most important fields are material innovation, new scrap segregation technologies and improvements in creating low carbon and low energy production processes.