Novelis has used hydrogen to power a metal-recycling process in north-west England.
The aluminium specialist carried out tests using the gas to operate a melting furnace in Latchford, Warrington.
The demonstration project formed part of the government’s Industrial Fuel Switching Competition programme, designed to aid decarbonisation efforts.
Several hundred tonnes of scrap aluminium alloy were remelted and cast into sheet ingots under the trial.
Further downstream processing, including rolling and finishing, will be now completed at Novelis plants in Europe to establish the parameters of a hydrogen-based, recycled alloy production process.
A report will be published on the experiment following post-trial evaluation.
Novelis Latchford plant manager Allan Sweeney said: “The use of hydrogen is not common in the aluminium 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.
“The results from Latchford will drive further research into the potential deployment of hydrogen in our recycling operations worldwide.”
