European Aluminium organised an online Cross-fertilisation workshop “Towards a more sustainable alumina production in Europe”, on the 23rd and the 24th of September 2021. This two-day workshop presented the main outcomes from the relevant ongoing EU H2020 projects addressing the upstream part of the aluminium value chain, the alumina production. The main objectives of this workshop were to promote exchange and cross-fertilisation between those EU projects and the industry to foster new synergies. The ultimate goal was to identify the most promising routes to boost the industrial symbiosis and turn bauxite residue into a resource or produce alumina from alternative sources.

CORALIS partners from Fertiberia Mr. Marco Fontanella and White Research Mr. Alexandros Altsitsiadis had the opportunity to participate in the workshop with a presentation on Waste recovery from the aluminum sector via industrial symbiosis.

On one side, this workshop presented how bauxite residue can be valorised, e.g.

  • via the various processing routes studied in the EU RemovAL project;
  • via specific valorisation concept in the cement industry as considered under the ReActiv;
  • via the benefits of extracting Scandium and other valuable REE and metals as addressed in the SCALE project and relevant projects (REEBAUX and RIS-RESTORE).

Potential alternative alumina production routes were presented on the other side, as studied by the EU AlSiCal & ENSUREAL projects. Additionally, the concept of industrial symbiosis was further investigated from a business model perspective as addressed in CORALIS or from synergies with the silicon value chain as studied in SisAL or from skills need perspective as covered in SAIS-SPIRE.

You can download the programme here.
For more information about the workshop please email innovation@european-aluminium.eu.
Source: European Aluminium