Hydro passes greener aluminium milestone

1/21/2020

Hydro passes greener aluminium milestone

Real estate developers in Europe, North America and elsewhere are increasingly willing to pay more for aluminium, because it can help to reduce their carbon footprint. The respected international news agency Reuters reported this week on Hydro’s commitment to low-carbon aluminium. Sapa and other Hydro Building Systems subsidiaries are expected to sell 25,000 tons of Hydro CIRCAL in 2020, compared with 10,000 tons in 2019. In total, the companies sell 80,000 tons of aluminium in the form of windows, doors and facade profiles annually. You can now also buy facade profiles made from Hydro CIRCAL. Ask your Sapa consultant about how you can gain this competitive advantage in your next sustainable project.

Hydro CIRCAL is a product serie made of recycled, post-consumer scrap. Today Hydro offers CIRCAL 75R, with minimum 75 percent recycled post-consumer scrap and a certified carbon footprint below 2.3 kg CO2 per kg aluminium.

The Hydro-owned companies within building systems, including Sapa, recently passed a milestone of 40 building projects using Hydro CIRCAL facades. That is about 2300 tons of greener aluminium, with big and small projects of up to 400 tons. An example is Økern Portal, one of Norway’s largest development projects, which uses 275 tons of Hydro CIRCAL aluminium in its facades.

“The volumes are still small in the big picture of the global aluminium market, but this is currently one of Hydro’s fastest growing segments. By end 2020, all of Building Systems’ products and solutions in Europe will be available in Hydro CIRCAL and Hydro REDUXA, and we expect demand for low-carbon aluminium to grow in years to come,” says head of Hydro’s business area Extruded Solutions, Egil Hogna.

Production ramp-up in 2020

Next year, Hydro will ramp up production of Hydro CIRCAL by increasing annual capacity to 25,000 tonnes with an upgrade and expansion of the Azuqueca recycling plant in Spain.

Hydro is the first aluminium producer supplying prime quality end-of-life recycled aluminium with a certified content of more than 75 percent recycled post-consumer scrap. The production process is fully traceable, and the product is certified by an independent third party (DNV GL).The European Commission’s sustainability targets require all new buildings to operate at net zero carbon emissions by 2030 – and all buildings by 2050. Hydro’s CIRCAL 75R is enabling builders and architects to meet the most demanding sustainability targets.

Pictures: DARK arkitekter, Luxigon