HARITZA 2: metal material recycling for reuse

The HARITZA 2 project (Oak, Quercus robur in Latin, hard, with strength and perseverance) investigates the recovery of complex waste in the metallurgical sector—solid, liquid, and gaseous alike—prioritizing those that occupy the most volume in landfills and are the least inert. This project is undertaken because it is a necessity for the metallurgical industry to reorient waste treatment from both an environmental and economic perspective (foundry alone accounts for 9% of the Basque Country’s GDP).

Metal recycling in the EU, and in particular in the Basque Country, helps reduce dependence on imported materials and ensures the supply for the manufacturing and maintenance of basic infrastructures in various fields such as construction, communication, or transport.

Scrap metal from the end of the useful life of steel, iron, aluminum, or copper components can be remelted and give rise to new products through foundry processes. However, this industry is not exempt from a significant environmental impact, since, to recycle the metal, companies in this sector generate waste and emissions that must be captured, recycled, and valorized.

For example, some solid wastes go straight to landfills, such as foundry sands, slags, turnings and scales, and oils. Therefore, the challenge that HARITZA 2 aims to address is to economically recover these complex materials using zero-carbon emission technologies and valorize them within the metallurgical industries themselves and other sectors to be reused on-site, or else to be inerted for use in other industrial applications. One example is inerting scales and slags to be used as raw material for new refractory products in low-temperature furnaces.

The main objectives of the project are:

• Create a new hybrid recovery technology for all waste generated in the metallurgical industry, prioritizing those that are susceptible to being sent to landfills.
• Ensure that the generated by-products have the quality to be reused.
• Explore all alternatives for each generated waste from all circular economy perspectives.
• Guarantee flexibility so that they can be implemented in different industrial processes, adapting them to each type of industry, and ensuring flexible processes for implementation and adaptation across various industrial procedures.
• Prioritize based on economic cost and time, ensuring they are lower or less than the cost of dumping.

The consortium of participating companies in this project is led by FUNSAN, and also includes COMERCIAL DE LAMINACIÓN (CDL), GUIVISA, ARCA, VIAL, SUMINISTRO Y CALIBRACION INDUSTRIAL, FUNDICIONES SEIAK, VOLBAS, and Saitec Offshore Technologies.

Our objective in this project is to contribute our experience and knowledge gained from the construction process of DemoSATH and apply it to conduct the ecodesign study of the decarbonized concretes developed within the project, in order to study both circularity and the reduction of the carbon footprint of the new concretes developed in the project.

This project has received financial assistance charged to the expenditure budget of the Department of Industry, Energy Transition, and Sustainability of the Basque Government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Related posts:

Floating wind in the Mediterranean: from identified challenges to real-world experience Franco-Spanish offshore renewable energy summit in Bayonne Why concrete is the right material for floating wind? Experience from our prototype