Construction has started on a multi-chamber melting furnace and ancillary equipment that will recycle 50ky/y of aluminum scrap to feed the rolling mills of Alunorf aluminum rolling complex.
Alunorf is a joint venture of Novelis and Norsk Hydro and is based near Neuss, Germany.
The recycling centre will process aluminum scrap from Novelis plants as well as from the manufacturing facilities of customers across Europe.
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 Norsk Hydro.
The combined capacity of the integrated recycling operations will be 100kt/y when the Novelis facility comes on-stream in late 2011.
Tadeu Nardocci, president of Novelis Europe said the centre would complement its dedicated aluminum can recycling operation in Warrington, UK.
Recycling aluminum uses only 5% of the energy required to make the metal from raw materials and avoids 95% of the greenhouse gases associated with primary aluminum production.