Jaguar Land Rover Expanding Its Use Of Recycled Aluminum In Car Bodies
In a bid to reduce waste and associated greenhouse gas emissions, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive is now working to expand its use of recycled aluminum in car bodies — as part of a £2 million project dubbed “REALITY” — according to recent reports.
The 3-year project is intended to result in a closed-loop aluminum recycling program — one that will see the aluminum from end-of-life vehicles used directly in the manufacture of “high-performance product forms for new vehicle bodies.”
Green Car Congress provides more: “REALITY builds on the REALCAR project allowing tens of thousands of tonnes of aluminum generated in the manufacturing process to be recycled and reused as a closed-loop. Aluminum from other sources, including end-of-life vehicles, can now be graded and used in the manufacture of new cars.”
The REALCAR (REcycled ALuminium CAR) project apparently allowed Jaguar Land Rover to reuse over 75,000 tonnes of aluminum scrap, which was used in the production of aluminum in the 2016/17 cycle. The new REALITY project seeks to build on that success.
The Green Car Congress coverage continues: “The new project will consider advanced sorting technologies and evaluate the next generation aluminum alloys for greater recyclability. Innovations in the sorting and separating technologies applied to automotive end-of-life waste streams will also help other sectors, including packaging and construction.”
The project’s partners will include Axion Recycling, Novelis, Innovate UK, Norton aluminum, Innoval Technology, Brunel University London, and WMG University of Warwick.
As a reminder here, recycling aluminum is a highly energy efficient process, altogether requiring up to 95% less energy than aluminum production from ore (primary production).
This is not Jaguar Land Rover’s only green initiative recently, you may have noticed. In what increasingly seems like a basic requirement for auto companies, the British firm last week announced that every single one of its models will include an electric or at least hybrid option by 2020. Closing in on the end of 2017, that basically means the plans were in the works for a while.
Jaguar also recently electrified an iconic car from years past, a 1961 XK-E drophead coupe. It’s no mass-market Model 3, but it’s a symbol of Jaguar’s increasing electric focus and green efforts. And it’s just fun.
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