Brunel casting centre aims to improve metal recyclability

The AMCC is jointly funded by EPSRC, Constellium, an aluminium automotive sheet and extrusions solutions provider, Brunel, and a major luxury car manufacturer.

The new facility will draw on the work done by Prof Zhongyun Fan and his team at the Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) to improve the recyclability of metals.

‘Our long term aim is to reduce the amount of new metal mined from the ground to a minimum, by finding ways to make high quality parts and materials from metal that has already been used at least once.’ said Prof Fan in a statement.

‘For example, in the UK alone we send around 300,000 tonnes of aluminium to landfill every year. That is a direct economic loss of nearly £800m and represents a further loss of around 11 million barrels of oil, representing the energy used to make that amount of aluminium. Clearly, there are many environmental and economic benefits to be gained from reusing that material.’