Novelis tests hydrogen in recycling furnace

Novelis Inc., with global headquarters in Atlanta, has tested using hydrogen fuel to power a recycling furnace at its U.K. plant in Latchford, Warrington, as part of a U.K. government decarbonization program. The company announced that it had received funding for the project in the summer of 2023.

Novelis Latchford is one of Europe's largest aluminum used beverage can (UBC) recycling plants and Europe's largest closed-loop recycling operation for automotive aluminum rolled products with an annual recycling capacity of up to 195,000 metric tons, according to Novelis.

The plant is an essential part of Novelis' European production and has enough capacity to recycle every aluminum beverage can sold in the U.K. It also collaborated with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to create the first automotive aluminum closed-loop recycling system in Europe.

The test was in collaboration with Progressive Energy, an independent U.K. energy company, and required the installation of new burners, regenerators and furnace lining material. Using hydrogen instead of the same amount of natural gas when operating a melting furnace can reduce CO₂e emissions by up to 90 percent, the company says.

"Exploring renewable energy sources, such as hydrogen, making first-mover investments and reducing energy intensity are part of our 3x30 vision to advance aluminum as the material of choice with circular solutions,” says Emilio Braghi, executive vice president, Novelis, and president, Novelis Europe. "With the significant expansion of our local recycling capacity, we are transforming the Latchford site into a prototype for high-recycled content and decarbonized aluminum production."

Several series of tests were conducted blending different percentages of hydrogen, ranging from 30 percent to 100 percent, with natural gas to evaluate the impact on existing infrastructure and equipment compatibility, Novelis says. During the trial campaign, several hundred metric tons of 3000 series aluminum alloy scrap were remelted and cast into sheet ingots. The company says all relevant parameters were measured to assess any impact on the product, process, operating environment and environmental emissions, adding that safety was a top priority in all the testing.

Further downstream processing, including rolling and finishing, will be completed at other Novelis plants in Europe to establish the real end-to-end parameters of a hydrogen-based, recycled alloy production process. Following the full post-trial evaluation and assessments, a report will be released as part of the U.K. government's Industrial Fuel Switching program later this year.

"The use of hydrogen is not common in the aluminum industry today, and we are very proud to be one of the pioneers to have tested this new fuel at an industrial scale and in a real-world environment," says Allan Sweeney, plant manager, Novelis Latchford. "The results from Latchford will drive further research into the potential deployment of hydrogen in our recycling operations worldwide."

The demonstration project at Novelis Latchford is part of the U.K. government's Industrial Fuel Switching Competition program. Supported with a grant of 4.6 million pounds sterling ($5.8 million), as part of the 1 billion pounds sterling ($1.3 billion) Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and the wider regional HyNet project, the program is designed to support decarbonizing industry operations by switching from natural gas to low carbon hydrogen. As the U.K.'s leading industrial decarbonization cluster, HyNet will decarbonize industry across the northwest and north Wales through the production, transportation and storage of low-carbon hydrogen and by capturing industry's carbon dioxide emissions through Carbon Capture Solutions. Novelis has been a partner in the HyNet project since 2017 and is supporting the development of the regional infrastructure project.  

Novelis also is conducting technical feasibility studies into using hydrogen as a direct replacement for natural gas. More generally, the company’s research and development teams worldwide are investigating the possibility of using plasma and electricity to supply energy to its production plants.

As announced in July 2024, Novelis is investing approximately $90 million to double the recycling capacity for used beverage cans (UBCs) at its plant in Latchford. The project will increase the facility's UBC recycling capacity by 85,000 metric tons per year and decrease Novelis Europe's CO₂e by more than 350,000 metric tons annually. The project is expected to begin commissioning in December 2026.

Furthermore, as part of Novelis 3x30, the company has set sustainability targets to achieve by the end of 2030, including increasing recycled content to 75 percent from today's 63 percent, reducing carbon emissions to less than 3 metric tons CO₂e per metric ton of aluminum shipped and continuing to lead the industry to circularity through first-mover investments. These are in addition to its goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 or sooner. Along with using higher amounts of recycled content, Novelis says decarbonization of the company's melting processes and energy sources are important levers to delivering lower-carbon, highly sustainable aluminum solutions.