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，随着对零碳和气候变化的日益关注，铝生产行业面临着前所未有的压力，必须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的存在是为了通过为铝冶炼和铝回收产生的废物开发创新解决方案来帮助铝生产行业实现其可持续发展目标。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到循环经济中作为次要资源。这既可以是铝行业，也可以是水泥、陶瓷、钢铁和耐火材料生产等下游行业。Ultromex已经为铝渣、盐渣和废锅衬里开发了可持续的解决方案。这些解决方案可以部署在冶炼现场，以便在产生废物时进行处理，甚至在废物已被填埋的地点进行处理，以处理它们并回收资源用于有益的利用。通过FilterEx，Ultromex现在将注意力转向过滤系统产生的废物-过滤器粉尘。这股废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，可以释放有毒和潜在的爆炸性气体，含有可浸出的污染物，被认为是受监管地区的危险废物。然而，它在几个关键领域不同，特别是非常细的颗粒尺寸和污染物的范围，这带来了新的处理挑战。FilterEx Ultromex已经在概念和实验室规模证明了这一点，现在它正寻求升级到一个小型中试工厂，通过一系列过滤粉尘向冶炼厂展示该工艺在小型工业规模上的有效性。它还将为潜在的下游用户提供足够数量的处理材料，以评估和验证材料作为二次原料是否适合其有益的工业用途。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，但通常被认为是不可持续的。该项目的成功完成将为所有利益相关者带来许多好处；铝业、利用产出的下游行业、应对环境挑战的社会，以及将再次展示全球领导地位的英国plc。

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.