The essential contribution of

recycling in a sustainable

aluminium value chain

Catherine AthènesSustainability Leader, Constellium

METAL BULLETIN 24th RECYCLED ALUMINIUM CONFERENCEBratislava, November 22, 2016

Constellium is a leader in innovative aluminium-based solutions

2

Over 10,000 full-time employees

€5.2 billion in sales

22 manufacturing sites

C-TEC, our world-class Technology Center

Headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Corporate offices in Paris, France, Zurich, Switzerland and

New York, USA

2015 key figures

Structured into 3 business units

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Aerospace and Transportation

€ 1.355 billion in revenues

#1 worldwide for aerospace plates

#1 in the USA for large coils

Packaging and Automotive Rolled Products

€ 2.748 billion in revenues

#1 worldwide in closure stock

#2 in Europe and North America for can body stock

Major player in auto body sheet: #4 worldwide

Automotive Structures and Industry

€ 1.047 billion in revenues

#1 in Europe for large profiles

#1 in Europe for hard alloy extrusions

Joint #1 worldwide in Crash Management Systems

Impacts and benefits

of aluminium

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The life cycle of aluminium products

5

Semi-

product

Bauxite

Extraction

Alumina

refiningAluminium

smelting

Product design

and

manufacturing

Product

use

Collecting &

sortingRecycling

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Impacts and benefits along the life cycle

Resource

extraction

Aluminum

smelting

Product Use

Recycling

Semi-manufacturing:

extrusion / rolling

casthouse

Product

Manufacturing

Impacts

Benefits

Benefits

Aluminium: impacts and benefits along the value chain

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The environmental and social impact of aluminium production and use is

contrasted:

Specific primary impacts (mining, primary metal)

Strong downstream benefits

Recycling saves 95% energy compared to using primary metals

Light weight in transport saves fuel and CO2 emissions during use

Lighter products make everyday life easier

Aluminium impacts

And how to minimize them

■ Improving our energy efficiency

■ Increasing recycling in the industry (less primary metal sourced)

■ Developing and promoting a standard for good practices along the value chain

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Specific environmental & social impacts

■ Biodiversity during bauxite mining

■ Impact on indigenous populations during bauxite mining

■ Red mud storage during alumina refining

■ Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during smelting, a focus area

considering climate change

Aluminium benefits

…and maximize the benefits

■ Recycling

more products recycled through joined programs

improving closed loops

■ Reducing density further

■ Improving the performance: strength, fatigue, corrosion, formability, stiffness, conductivity, crash

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Key beneficial properties

■ Infinite recyclability

■ Corrosion resistance

■ Lightness

■ Strength

■ Reflectivity

A closer look at the Life Cycle

Assessment of some key

aluminium products

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Life Cycle Assessment is key in evaluating the GHG

emissions of aluminium products

CO2 emissions

0.6 t/1320 lbs

CO2 emissions

2-4 t

(4400-8800 Lbs)

CO2 emissions

0 t

CO2 emissions

0.5 t/1100 lbs

Can

8,3 t Gap

CO2 emissions / t of primary alu produced

8,8 t/19800 lbs

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Life Cycle Assessment: key in evaluating GHG

impact of aluminium products

Compared with steel

Auto

CO2 emissions

- 7 t/-15400 lbs

CO2 emissions

0.6 t /1320 lbs

CO2 emissions

0.5 t/1100 lbs

CO2 emissions / t of primary alu produced

8,8 t/19800 lbs

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8,3 t Gap

CO2 emissions

≈1-4 t ?

(2200-8800 lbs)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Climate change [g CO2 eq. / can]

Effect of recycling rate for an aluminium beverage can

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Even better with

higher recycling rates

Actual result for

2012 recycling rate

Robustness of LCA results for CMS vs. mass saving

and recycling rate

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Boundary = same

impact for both

Reference

scenario

recycling rate

Recycling is essential…

Recycled content is not !

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Recycled content: an appealing concept

For consumers who see a guarantee

that the material

is effectively recycled.

For aluminium

converters who can

claim higher recycled

content than their

competitors.

For brands which can

claim the environmental

benefit of their products

rather than the material

used.

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Recycled content is not suited to metals!

Keeps same properties after recycling

Cannot be distinguished from virgin metal

Infinitely recyclable!

Has value which pays for recycling

■ Loses its properties after recycling

■ Low value of scrap/high cost of recycling

Recycled content provides an incentive to

recycle and is not limited by unsorted

scrap availability

Recycled content is not the right incentive

What may work for plastics and paper does NOT work for metals!

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Recycled content can be a misleading concept!

1 2 3Recycled content

includes industry

process scrap and

the part of end of life

scrap versus process

scrap is never

mentioned!

Recycled content can

only work if there is

enough available

scrap, which is

essentially dependent

on scrap produced

many years ago

Increasing recycled

content of a product is

highly likely to happen

by decreasing the

recycled content of

another one!

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Is increasing process scrap intake good for the planet?

NO! What matters is end of life scrap!

Sa

me

ou

tpu

t

Metal

sourcing

Rolling/

RemeltingProduct Mfg

Standard

process

40% process

scrap

recycled

content

1.0 1.67 1.0

0.67Process scrap = more material to be

transformed & remelted higher energy use

Metal

sourcing

Rolling/

RemeltingProduct Mfg

Optimized

process”Only” 20%

process

scrap

recycled

content

1.0 1.0

0.25

1.25

When RC includes process scrap, it can be seen as a

metrics for industrial inefficiencies with no environmental

value.

1

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Less scrap generated less material to

be transformed & remelted

more efficient but lower recycled content

End of life scrap intake is limited by its availability

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75% of the aluminium

ever produced is still

in use

Due to the long lifespan of most (especially

larger) aluminium applications such as

buildings and transport vehicles, the available

quantity of end-of-life aluminium scrap

today is limited to what was put on the

market many years ago.

Calling for higher recycled

content will not change

scrap availability

Alu

min

ium

in t

per

ye

ar

0

2 000 000

4 000 000

6 000 000

8 000 000

10 000 000

12 000 000

14 000 000

1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013

Average product life ≈ 20 years

Available for

recycling now

20 years ago

production

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Source: European Aluminium

In which case higher recycled content brings no

environmental benefit.

VS.Average recycled content for every

product

Limited availability: one product getting

more doesn’t change the overall

environmental impacts, as others get

less

Can 1 Can 2 Can 3 Can 1 Can 2 Can 3

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3

Key recycling targets that

we need to achieve as an

industry together

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Aluminium beverage can

80%25%1992

20132020

71,3%

European aluminium beverage can recycling rate

USA aluminium beverage can recycling rate

56.5%

1995

54,5%

2015 HOW DO WE

IMPROVE?

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Automotive

End of life recyling of aluminium

products is already very good:

90%recycling in

automotive

and transportation

We need to improve the quality of the

scrap and insure that with aluminium

intensive vehicles, we will increase the

amount of aluminium scrap coming back

in high value products.

1

2

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Aerospace

Internal recycling: an internal imperative

need for a casthouse, most often integrated

Internal alloy sorting processes to keep alloy value

1

2

3

Customer scrap recycling: already efficient

A lot of machining scrap, high surface/mass ratio,

machining oil pollution

Alloy scrap segregation allows for keeping more

alloy value in the loop

End-Of-Life (EOL) scrap recycling: area for future

progress

Without alloy sorting: easily recycled in other

applications (e.g. cast parts)

But loss of value for high-end aerospace alloys:

sorting should improve to keep value in the loop

Technical feasibility of sorting demonstrated in the

past (PAMELA project)

Some recycling and

sorting technologies

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Salt rotary furnace

% organic

Decoater

+

melting

Induction furnace

Reverberatory

furnace

Side well furnace

Double chamber

furnace

thickness

Chips

Clean foils

Clean coils

Sawn parts

Used Bev.

Cans

Lacquered profiles

Thermal break profiles

Melting technology mapping function of scrap

characteristics (technical and economical optimum)

Depending on nature of scrap, different recycling technologies are

available.

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Principle :

Alloy identification by spectroscopic analysis of a plasma generated by laser shots onto the surface (LIBS : Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy)

Scanning conveyor belt for further selective air ejection

Advantages

Sensitive to alloy composition

Not limited to high atomic masses

Limitations :

Method is still under development

Sensitive to coating, surface pollution

High technology for alloy sorting

LIBS sorting (as an alternative to X-Ray sorting)

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Simple technology for alloy sorting

7075

painted offcuts

YELLOW: Airware® BLACK: 7010/7040/7050/7055/7455

BLUE: 7075/7175/7475GREEN: 2024/2124/2027

Alloy families

AIRWARE®

painted offcuts

Bins for

AIRWARETM

offcuts

Bins for

2024

offcuts

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Conclusion

Recycling is a key issue for aluminium sustainability as it saves a lot of

environmental impacts and value.

The aluminium industry is already highly efficient in recycling both process and end

of life scrap

Recycling rates and particularly end of life recycling should be our main focus and

not recycled content

End of life scrap quality will be an increased area of focus particularly for

automotive and aerospace

Overall, we should continue to make progress if we improve:

Alignment of consumer behavior, collection and sorting infrastructure for

packaging products

Sorting organization for process scrap in automotive and aerospace

New sorting and dismantling technologies and infrastructure for end of life

vehicles and aircraft

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THANK YOU!