Imagine cleaning up the way we make metal by swapping dirty coal for clean hydrogen gas. Instead of throwing away aluminum scrap and mining waste, this process uses them as ingredients to create high-value alloys. It's like turning industrial trash into the essential building blocks for batteries and steel.
The EU metallurgy industry faces high CO2 emissions and a dependency on imported critical raw materials. Traditional manganese production is carbon-intensive and generates significant solid waste.
A pilot-scale integrated process using hydrogen and aluminum scrap to produce manganese metal and alloys, including a method to recover alumina and strontium from waste.
If you are a battery producer dealing with the high cost and carbon footprint of raw materials — this project developed a way to use manganese production dust as a raw material for battery cathodes. This allows for a more sustainable supply chain for lithium-ion cells.
If you are a steel mill dealing with strict CO2 emission limits — this project developed a hydrogen-based reduction process that produces manganese metal and master alloys. This replaces carbon-heavy traditional smelting to keep your production competitive in a green economy.
If you are a recycler dealing with low-value aluminum dross and scrap — this project developed a method to valorize these wastes into Al-Mn master alloys. This turns a waste disposal cost into a new revenue stream for the aluminum industry.
The project has moved beyond the lab, using a H2-plasma rotary furnace and shaft furnace to produce over 3 tons of pre-reduced ores, with a final smelting campaign using 1.5 tons of ore in an electric arc furnace.
Based on available project data, the process improves economy by recovering heat and hydrogen from process gas and by turning waste materials like aluminum dross into commercial alloys.
Based on available project data, the project is currently in the demonstration phase (TRL 6-7) and is developing business cases; specific licensing terms are not provided.
The process utilizes standard industrial equipment like Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF), suggesting it can be integrated into existing metallurgical infrastructure.
The project runs from 2023-01-01 to 2026-12-31, aiming to reach TRL 7 by the end of the period.
The consortium is heavily weighted toward industrial application, with 11 industry partners (61% ratio), including 5 SMEs. This high industry concentration, spanning 11 countries, indicates that the project is focused on commercial viability and market integration rather than purely academic research.
Contact NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Contact us to connect with the HAlMan consortium for licensing and pilot integration.
