Editorial Magazine 2015/1
A CLEANER ENVIRONMENT: A MUST FOR THE FUTURE
The main theme of the next Aluminium Two Thousand Congress, that will take place in May 2015, will regard the safety of the environment, water saving by reaching “zero” liquid discharges, the use of new, non-toxic chemical products, production of sludge as inert as possible.
For extruders there will be many presentations about the latest developments related to the nearly total recovery of caustic soda from die cleaning plants: this system allows to obtain considerable savings (80-90%) on the purchase of caustic soda, and even bigger savings on the disposal of the liquid wastes (also in this case 80-90%).
For suppliers (anodizers and coaters) absolute novelties won’t be missing. In fact, it is nowadays possible to completely recycle the process water (which can amount to tens of square meters for every working hour), obtaining up to zero discharge of liquid effluents. The great novelty consists in being able to carry out a complete recirculation without using expensive evaporators (expensive to buy and also to run in terms of energy consumption): the new system, already patented and already used by industries in Europe, is completely chemical, it uses natural products and it permanently “encapsulates” the chemical substances used in anodizing and coating, therefore the final sludge is considered inert (Aluminium Two Thousand, Florence, Italy, May 14th, 2015: From reducing….see program)
Another main topic will also be the recent official introduction on the market of non-toxic substances for aluminium finishing, like cold sealing without nickel (already available) (Aluminium Two Thousand, Florence, Italy, May 12th and 13th, 2015, see program at page 20 ) and passivation without chromium (Aluminium Two Thousand, Florence, Italy, May 14th, 2015, see program at page 22).
The use of non-toxic substances in anodizing and coating processes, drastically contributes to the reduction of professional diseases and of the discharge of toxic and harmful substances in the effluents (in case there is no zero-discharge).
I will also spend a few words on metal recycling: nowadays it is important, not only to recycle for obvious economic interests, but also to do it with maximum efficiency in order to obtain secondary products with higher quality and more value. Two important speakers (E. David and V. Kevorkian) will explain their recent researches and innovations on May 14th, in Florence.
As you can see from the numerous presentations regarding environment and recycling, the aluminium industry is doing a lot in terms of research and development: now it is necessary to learn about these new technologies and apply them the right way in order to obtain the best results for one’s company and, of course, for the world and the environment in which we live and towards which we have great responsibility in maintaining the right environmental balance.
Walter Dalla Barba
Editor and Chairman of the 9th Aluminium Two Thousand Congress
