FilterEx – A sustainable solution for aluminium smelting filter dust wastes

从现在到2030年，全球铝消费量预计将增长40%，但与此同时，人们越来越关注净零碳排放和气候变化，铝生产部门面临着前所未有的压力，需要确保其活动是可持续的，并在可能的情况下为社会的环境目标做出积极贡献。Ultromex的存在是为了帮助铝生产部门实现其可持续发展目标，为铝冶炼和铝回收产生的废物开发创新解决方案。我们的主要目标是处理这些废物，使它们可以从垃圾填埋场转移，并作为二次资源返回循环经济。这可以是在铝行业或下游行业，如水泥，陶瓷，钢铁和耐火材料生产。Ultromex已经为铝渣、盐渣和废罐衬垫开发了可持续解决方案。这些解决方案可以部署在冶炼现场，在出现废物时进行处理，甚至可以部署在废物填埋的现场，对其进行处理并回收资源以供有益使用。随着FilterEx的出现，奥特mex现在将注意力转向了过滤系统产生的废物-过滤粉尘。这种废物流表现出其他铝冶炼废物的许多特征；它具有高度的水反应性，可产生有毒和潜在爆炸性气体，含有可浸出的污染物，在受管制地区被视为危险废物。然而，它在几个关键领域有所不同，特别是非常细的颗粒尺寸和污染物的范围，这给处理带来了新的挑战。已经在概念验证和实验室规模上得到了证明，FilterEx Ultromex现在寻求将其升级到一个小型试验工厂，以向冶炼厂展示该工艺在小型工业规模下对一系列过滤器粉尘的有效性。它还将为潜在的下游用户提供足够数量的处理过的材料，以评估和验证该材料作为其有益的工业用途的二次原料的适用性。FilterEx的设计使处理成本在经济上有利于现有的处置解决方案，但通常不被认为是可持续的。项目的成功结束将为所有利益相关者带来许多好处；铝工业，下游产业使用的产出，社会作为环境挑战的解决和英国plc将再次展示全球领导的铝冶炼废料的处理。

With global aluminium consumption forecasted to grow by 40% between now & 2030 but at the same time with increasing focus on carbon net zero and climate change, the pressure has never been greater on the aluminium production sector to ensure that its activities are sustainable and indeed where possible make a positive contribution to society's environmental goals.Ultromex exists to help the aluminium production sector achieve its sustainability goals by developing innovative solutions for the wastes produced by aluminium smelting and aluminium recycling. Our primary objective is to treat these wastes so that they can be diverted from landfill and returned to the circular economy as secondary resources. This can be either within the aluminium sector or downstream industries such as cement, ceramics, steel and refractory production.Ultromex has already developed sustainable solutions for aluminium dross, salt slag and spent pot liner. These solutions can be deployed at the smelting site to treat waste as it arises or even at a site where wastes have been landfilled, to treat them and recover the resources for beneficial use.With FilterEx, Ultromex has now turned its attention to the wastes arising from filtration systems - Filter Dusts. This waste stream exhibits many of the characteristics of other aluminium smelting wastes; it is highly water reactive and can evolve toxic and potentially explosive gasses, contains leachable contaminants and is considered to be a hazardous waste in regulated regions.It differs, however, in several key areas, notably the very fine particle size and the range of contaminants which present new treatment challenges.Already proven at proof of concept and laboratory scale, with FilterEx Ultromex now seeks to upscale to a small pilot plant to demonstrate to smelters' the effectiveness of the process at small industrial scale across a range of filter dusts. It will also provide sufficient volumes of treated materials for potential downstream users to assess and validate the suitability of the material as a secondary feedstock for their beneficial, industrial use.FilterEx has been designed so that the cost of treatment will be economically favourable to existing disposal solutions but which are generally not considered to be sustainable.A successful conclusion to the project will have many benefits for all stakeholders; the aluminium industry, downstream industries using the outputs, society as environmental challenges are addressed and UK plc which will again demonstrate global leadership for treatment of aluminium smelting wastes.