The circular and constant aluminum (CirConAl) project has been funded by a £10 million grant from the UK’s Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and is part of a strategy to build an end-to-end supply chain for zero emissions vehicles in the UK.
According to the company, the consortium plans to maximize the use of post-consumer scrap to make new high-strength alloys that emit less than two tons of CO2 per ton of aluminum produced.
The project will focus on develop prototype aluminum automotive components at scale to demonstrate that high-strength alloys with high recycled content can meet or exceed OEM requirements, such as strength, crushability, durability, and other performance criteria, Constellium said. There are also plans to develop scrap sorting technologies to help ensure metal is recycled into new automotive products.
“Low carbon solutions require collaboration across the supply chain and Constellium is proud to lead the CirConAl project in partnership with the APC, automakers, and suppliers as the industry works toward carbon neutrality,” said Philippe Hoffmann, president of Constellium’s automotive structures and industry business unit. “[W]e expect this next generation of alloys to provide automakers with ultra-low embodied CO2 material to drastically reduce the carbon footprint of their products.”
