CONSTELLIUM rolled products ravenswood, LLC (CONSTELLIUM) plans to demonstrate its smartmelt technology, a single aluminum remelt system capable of operating across a range of low-NOX reduced-CO2…

CONSTELLIUM rolled products ravenswood, LLC (CONSTELLIUM) plans to demonstrate its smartmelt technology, a single aluminum remelt system capable of operating across a range of low-NOX reduced-CO2 emission natural gas to carbon-free hydrogen as fuel, becoming a first-of-kind zero carbon aluminum casting plant in the united states. CONSTELLIUM will replace 3 direct chill (DC) casting complexes with two single casting smartmelt complexes that will fully retire the legacy operations and allow the plant to move to hands-free casting. Upon commissioning with natural gas, the smartmelt technology will reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 30%. Integrating hydrogen fuel with the smartmelt technology could reduce CO2 emissions even further. This will be the first commercial scale demonstration of the technology in the united states. CONSTELLIUM plans to implement the technology at other sites in the united states and globally (8 total) and will explore licensing of smartmelt technology to third parties. The company considers this a lighthouse project to showcase smartmelt technology, but IT will also help promote adoption of hydrogen fueled technologies in industrial sectors. CONSTELLIUM is working closely with the united states aluminum association to promote new low-carbon aluminum products and secure new purchase agreements across its core customer base and among new prospective buyers. The ravenswood plant serves a broad range of industries with proprietary alloy aluminum sheet, plate, and coiled aluminum products. Primary markets include aerospace, defense, transportation, marine, and industrial sectors. In addition to decarbonization impacts, CONSTELLIUM expects this project to drive secondary benefits such as significantly improving worker safety; reducing emissions in an environmentally at-risk community; improving the competitiveness of a manufacturing plant located in a community at risk due to historic DE-industrialization and the ongoing fossil-fuel transition of WV; modernizing a plant essential to providing high-strength aluminum for national defense applications; providing advanced workforce training to a legacy manufacturing workforce that includes workers in labor-unions; and establishing critical industrial off-take opportunity for an emerging regional carbon-free (BLUE) hydrogen economy.