A consortium of the TRE Group was selected for an Environment Ministry demonstration project and will launch an initiative to sort mixed aluminum scrap by alloy type and horizontally recycle it domestically into wrought products.
A consortium comprising River, a consolidated subsidiary of TRE Holdings Corporation; Nippon Light Metal, a consolidated subsidiary of Nippon Light Metal Holdings Co., Ltd.; and Mizuho Bank, Ltd., rather than the Development Bank of Japan, announced that it had been selected for the Environment Ministry's demonstration project for the overall optimization of renewable-energy-related products. River will serve as the lead project operator, Nippon Light Metal and Mizuho Bank as joint implementers, and Mizuho Leasing Company, Limited as a cooperating company.
The demonstration project will handle mixed aluminum scrap recovered from used products and metal scrap, with the distinctive feature that it targets scrap of varying origins and conditions. Such scrap has previously been frequently reused as casting material or exported overseas.
Domestic reuse as wrought products requires sorting by alloy type and the removal of impurities. The demonstration project will use wet-density sorting for pretreatment and combine X-ray sorting with LIBS sorters to establish a multistage sorting process and determine the relevant conditions.