DTE secures $1.85M contract for its unique real-time liquid metal intelligence solution with Century Aluminium for low-carbon products
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND – Oct 21, 2022
DTE, a leader in metals intelligence, is pleased to announce the signature of a $1.85M contract with Nordural Grundartangi ehf, (“Nordural”) a wholly owned subsidiary of Century Aluminium Company (NASDAQ: CENX) in Iceland.
Under the contract, DTE will provide its revolutionary real-time chemical composition analysis solution for the four skimming stations of the new low-carbon billet casthouse. DTE’s solution will monitor the quality of the liquid aluminium transferred from the electrolysis potroom to the furnaces, optimizing the value chain by enabling the correct aluminium quality to be directed to the appropriate furnace based on the final product to be cast. Nordural will benefit from maximizing throughput, minimizing cycle time in the furnaces, minimizing emissions and energy consumption, and removing bottleneck limitations in the casthouse. DTE’s fully autonomous solution avoids the need for manual intervention by plant personnel, contributing to plant safety and reducing analysis costs.
Nordural’s decision was driven by a similar solution under testing in the existing casthouse. Olafur Arnar Fridriksson, Project Manager of the new billet casthouse at Nordural, commented, “We are very pleased to continue working with DTE. We see great potential in the equipment under testing in our current casthouse, so selecting DTE for this project was a straightforward decision. DTE is a strategic partner for Nordural, with their solution being gradually implemented throughout the production process”.
Diego Areces, CEO of DTE, said, “I’m very thankful and excited for this opportunity, which is a major milestone for DTE. Nordural has been one of our strategic partners and has remained a great supporter of DTE. We look forward to delivering on this commitment and contributing value to the new low-carbon billet casthouse project. In addition, we will continue working together, deploying DTE’s solution along Nordural’s production process to maximize operational efficiency, resilience, and sustainability.”
Nordural’s new value-added casthouse will have a capacity of 150,000 tonnes of billet production and is expected to start production in the first quarter of 2024. The expansion project will also double Grundartangi’s annual capacity to produce primary foundry alloys from its current 60,000 tonnes of capacity to 120,000 tonnes of capacity. This additional billet and primary foundry alloy capacity replaces standard-grade ingot production, raising expected product premiums for Grundartangi products. The $120 million investment is expected to create approximately 90 jobs during construction and approximately 40 permanently.
The new Natur-Al™ billets and foundry products will be produced to meet the growing demand from European customers for low-carbon aluminium products. Grundartangi uses Iceland’s 100% renewable energy resources to create Natur-Al™ aluminium, which has one of the lowest CO₂ footprints in the world. Natur-Al™ billet and foundry products will have less than a quarter of the CO₂ content of the industry average, fulfilling growing demand from Europe’s most environmentally conscious consumers. Natur-Al™ products can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of end products which is necessary for the highly competitive markets for consumer goods, vehicles, packaging, and construction materials.
About DTE
DTE, Unlocking the Future of Metals™, is the leading innovator in real-time intelligence from liquid metals, serving customers across the metals production and manufacturing value chain through maximizing value, sustainability, safety, and efficiency for all stakeholders.
Our purpose is advancing human progress with greener, safer, more efficient, and more valuable metals, contributing to the 1.5-degree challenge while driving digital transformation towards Industry 4.0 with the next generation of IIoT analysis technology. DTE provides tangible financial and environmental business outcomes from the plant floor to the business levels through valuable intelligence and predictive insights from liquid metals.
IREAS™, DTE’s unique, connected, real-time intelligence from liquid metals solution seamlessly integrates IT and OT, combining chemical composition analysis from molten metals based on liquid-phase laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LP-LIBS™) with an artificial intelligence-based analytics platform and digital metals intelligence services.
For more information, please visit www.dte.ai
Contact Information
DTE ehf.
Diego Areces, CEO
Tel: (+354) 698 0173
Traditionally, chemical composition analysis is performed at regular intervals by human intervention; DTE’s solution eliminates waiting times for test results and make the overall analysis process safer by removing the associated risks with human sampling. Continuous checks also increase precision and enable recycled materials to be incorporated as a larger part of the smelt. For the first time, EIT Manufacturing’s support will contribute to serving the customers that DTE has and to expanding IREAS, DTE’s metals intelligence solution, into new metals and materials.
“We are delighted to have been selected to receive this award from the European Innovation Council,” commented Diego Areces, CEO of DTE, “The EIC’s expert assessment process further validates and endorses the huge potential of IREAS, our metals analytics and intelligence solution both to add value and improve the sustainability of the metals industry. Today, producers and manufacturers are stuck with outdated methods for measuring and incorporating analysis of metals which hinders their process control and ultimately, ability to innovate. Our first-in-industry solution generates real time compositional data and intelligent process decision support from liquid metals, contributing to EU competitiveness, accelerating materials innovation, and helping energy intensive industries to decarbonize. This grant will enable us to advance our solution for aluminium smelter potrooms where we have already demonstrated the ability enhance predictive maintenance, with the potential to save billions of dollars per year in avoidable costs.”
