The words ‘Circular Economy’ can cover a lot of different subjects, but within CRM Group this is oriented towards maximising the value of metals produced and retaining that value during the life cycle as long as possible. At the end of its life cycle all materials ideally need to be re-used or recycled: zero-waste is our target.

A technology allowing the evaporation of zinc under vacuum has been developed at CRM group to de-galvanize zinc coated steel. Hence recovering the zinc from the oxides and purifying it for re-use. The purification step will even allow to increase the value of the original ‘waste’ to the level of high value secondary materials used as input flow for specialized products. No down-cycling, but true upcycling retaining and creating maximum value of metals.

Similar projects are initiated through our multiple compacting and melting units used at CRM Group for treatment of small metal particles that originate from machining or other metal fabrication processes to improve the recovery of expensive elements. To optimise the reuse or remanufacturing of materials we also trace what is inside the loop. Material tagging is not a faraway dream as it will help to follow products both during and at the end of their life cycle. Digitalisation should certainly make this possible. And so recycling of waste to metal is only the final step in closing the loop of efficiently sourced, produced, traced and reused materials.

Thermal preconditioning treatment and vacuum distillation

#circulareconomy #metalrecycling #zincpurification #degalvanization#digitalisation