In order to take advantage of all of the opportunities in front of it, Ultromex has strengthened its senior team.
Brent Mahoney, who joined the business in 2023 as Commercial Director has taken over as Chief Executive Officer from Nigel Seddon who is now Chairman of the company.
"Ultromex has some great technology in the aluminium space and huge opportunities in front of it. I am looking forward to continuing to grow the Ultromex business and build on Nigel’s legacy, as the business develops into a waste management powerhouse"
- Brent Mahoney
For smelters processing white drosses ALTROMEX can be used to pre process the dross before melting to increase yields, reduce operating costs, increase furnace throughput and bottom line profits. The lower the quality of the dross the bigger the gain!
The aluminum industry works hard to deal with its wastes responsibly. But in the past, when recycling technology was not so advanced, some wastes were land filled and are now causing pollution & environmental problems. TERRAMEX can resolve these problems permanently.
Our patented solution for treating Spent Pot Liners.
CARBOMEX is an exciting new technology which represents a step change for smelters who need a sustainable option for this hazardous, problematic aluminium production waste.
SALTROMEX plants, are designed to help secondary aluminium smelters of all sizes treat and recycle their own dross & salt slag to recover valuable aluminium for re-melt, recover the flux salts to use again while leaving non-odourous, valuable aluminium oxide residues.
Salt slag contains ~5 - 12 % metal which SALTROMEX can recover, without crushing or grinding, creating no metal fines meaning maxiumum metal recovery for re melt. No other technology is as effective at recovering metal from slags or drosses. More..
SALTROMEX removes the flux salts from the non metallic residues making it available to re-crystalise to use again over and over. Salt removal initiates hydrolysis reactions evolving malodourous, toxic and potentially explosive gases; SALTROMEX controls these gases so the process is safe and non odourous.
SALTROMEX leaves the de-metalled, salt free residues (mainly aluminium oxides) un-reactive and giving no odour. They become a valuable secondary resource for other industries.
Ever increasing environmental legislation puts pressure on smelters' operational effectiveness. Using SALTROMEX to treat your waste salt slag in-situ gives you more control.
The most common types of furnace used by the secondary aluminium industry are rotary or reverbatory furnaces. In these furnaces scrap aluminium is melted under a bath of molten salt flux which floats on the surface of the molten metal. The salt flux is a mixture of sodium chloride and potassium chloride, often with small amounts of fluorides (Cryolite).
Aluminium has a tendency to oxidize with the heat of the furnace so the salt provides an effective cover for the metallic aluminium, minimizing losses to oxidization and increasing metal recoveries. The fluoride in the salt helps break down oxide layers already on the surface of the scrap and so helps to improve separation between the aluminium and non-metal contaminants.
The molten metallic aluminium is tapped from the furnace and where it meets the salt layer this contains some residual aluminium metal, plus various metal oxides (mainly aluminium oxide) and the salts. This mixture solidifies and cools to become salt slag; sometimes known as salt cake or black dross.
Historically, salt slag was land filled but this has caused a number of problems, including salt and other contaminants leaching into the water course and (being exothermic on contact with water) causing underground fires. As environmental awareness and regulations have developed, landfill of salt cake has been banned in many countries and the options for disposal have become a major issue for the industry. Salt slag processing and treatment for recycling is now the only sustainable option.
Our technology allows secondary smelters to process and recycle their own salt slag wastes as they arise, recovering the small amount of trapped metal to re-melt, recovering the salts to use again and with the residual aluminium oxides becoming a useful feedstock for other industries and – crucially – leaving zero waste for landfill.
Where landfills exist and are causing environmental problems we have unrivalled expertise in providing solutions.