Construction has started on a multi-chamber melting furnace and ancillary equipment that will recycle 50,000 metric tons of aluminum scrap per year to feed the rolling mills of Alunorf.
The Novelis recycling center will process aluminum scrap from Novelis plants as well as from the manufacturing facilities of customers across Europe.
The company said it is the second phase of a recycling expansion project at Alunorf that began in 2009 with the construction of a similar recycling facility funded by the joint venture partner, Norsk Hydro.
The combined capacity of the integrated recycling operations is expected to be 100,000 metric tons per year when the Novelis facility comes on-stream in late 2011.
Novelis said that recycling aluminum uses only five percent of the energy required to make the metal from raw materials and avoids 95% of the greenhouse gases associated with primary aluminum production.
Alunorf, which is located near Neuss, Germany, is a joint venture of Novelis and Norsk Hydro.
