TAHA’s salt-free technologies have been patented in order to process aluminium dross to recover that same aluminium metal, and the residuals are then further processed into other industrially applicable products, Mr Frank Pollmann, Founder, TAHA International

Frank Pollmann is a German entrepreneur whose business roots in the Gulf region are more than 30 years deep. He founded TAHA International Corporation and has led its transformation from a small trading company in Bahrain to a leading-edge provider of proprietary dross management services to cast house operators worldwide. 

We at AlCircle are really glad to get a chance to interview Mr Frank Pollmann and hereby goes the details:

AlCircle: What exactly TAHA International serves the aluminium industry? 

Mr Frank Pollmann: TAHA is an international company with corporate headquarters in the Netherlands, and operations based in the Middle East, that offers innovative and environmentally friendly solutions for dross processing for aluminium foundries and remelters. Its benchmark processing system consists of refining residual oxides, without the use of salt or other chemicals, to produce raw material that can be used in downstream applications, including steel slag conditioning briquettes, agricultural fertilizers and aluminium tri-hydrate (ATH)

AlCircle: Can you clear us the picture about aluminium dross? 

Mr Frank Pollmann: Aluminium dross has historically been seen as a toxic industrial waste generated in large quantities in aluminium smelter plants and foundries. Pyrometallurgical methods, like rotary salt furnaces, are industrially applied for the recovery of the aluminium contained within the dross. However, TAHA’s salt-free technologies have been patented in order to process aluminium dross to recover that same aluminium metal, and the residuals are then further processed into other industrially applicable products.

AlCircle: Is aluminium dross recyclable? Please detail the process. 

Mr Frank Pollmann: The two-stage process patented by TAHA is unique because it requires neither any additional energy nor salt, avoiding obtaining toxic by-products. TAHA's on-site operations do not require reheating the dross, processing the dross hot straight from the furnace, and thanks to this rapid process with low energy consumption, up to 90% of the metal available in the dross can be recovered in the first phase and immediately brought it back to the original furnace without further alloying processes. The second phase recovers all the remaining aluminium in the dross with the use of a mechanical separator of non-ferrous metals. This recovered metal is collected, recast and sold or returned to the foundry, thus completing the recycling process. TAHA further refines residual oxides to produce raw materials for several value-added downstream applications, such as agricultural fertilizers, deoxidizing steel slag briquettes and ceramics, thus creating a zero-waste solution.

AlCircle: What is the relation between TAHA International and Runaya LLP? How does it support the industry?

Mr Frank Pollmann: TAHA was approached by Runaya Refining as one of a series of suppliers of dross processing technology that they were studying for the processing of the dross at the Vedanta Jharsuguda plant. From this pool of different technologies we were selected as the best option, and we, in turn, granted a licence to Runaya for the whole of the Indian sub-continent. So, Runaya is our technology licensee, not just for Vedanta, but in the future for any Indian foundry or remelter that may request our technology. It has been a long and arduous journey, due to varying factors like Covid, monsoons etc. but now that part is behind us and the Runaya plant was officially inaugurated on the 23rd July. We now eagerly await the next project together.

AlCircle: Can you elaborate on how TAHA’s process solutions support sustainable development and the environment? 

Mr Frank Pollmann: The main objective is to collaborate with customers to assist them in the management of dross. From the outset, TAHA has always championed environmentally friendly processes. Our approach tries to help our customers to reduce the creation of dross as much as possible since this is the main factor of financial loss for producers. Close collaboration between our experts and house staff is the key to dross management. This allows an effective transfer of knowledge on how to treat dross highlighting an aspect that many companies neglect, namely the choice of the correct skimming practice necessary to reduce the generation and improve the quality of the dross. In addition to achieving higher metal yields, TAHA processes do not produce waste and so nothing is sent to landfills. A commonly held belief in the industry is that liabilities are being transferred by either sale of the dross to the third party or sending it to an offsite dross processor but with current legislative changes underway these contingent liabilities may become very expensive for the originator.

In fact, dross should not be seen as waste, but rather as an economic source of valuable residual oxides that can be used as a raw material for other products. TAHA produces a fertilizer that works very well in soil types that have high levels of salinity and that under normal conditions do not allow plant growth. Healthy soil will bring benefits to agricultural profitability and the environment.

We are in complete alignment with the move towards “greener” aluminium throughout the entire process, and to this end, we have developed our value-added downstream from dross.

From the outset, TAHA anticipated their operations to provide a dross processing solution with a lower carbon footprint than the conventional TRF (Tilting Rotary Furnace) process. TAHA recently requested Ernst and Young Netherlands to analyse and compare its operational carbon footprint to the conventional TRF process to evaluate and validate differences between both processes in an objective and conservative manner.

In order to provide detailed insights into the carbon footprint compared to the benchmark, TAHA, KMF and EY in collaboration with the Austrian Montanuniversität Leoben (in the renowned "ShanghaiRanking" in the category "Global Ranking of Academic Subjects", Montanuniversität was ranked 15th in the field of Metallurgical Engineering), analysed the carbon footprint of TAHA’s aluminium dross process by means of a process life cycle assessment. The commissioned study was completed in February 2021, and the analysis demonstrates that the carbon footprint of TAHA’s method vastly outperforms the conventional TRF method, showing more than 81% less GHG emissions

AlCircle: What are the growth and investment plan of TAHA International in 2021? 

Mr Frank Pollmann: The goal is to significantly scale the dross recycling process to help the global aluminium industry efficiently manage on-site environmental risk and the production of value-added products. Since one of our business models is to operate on-site at the customer's foundry, there is no limit to the amount of dross we are currently able to process.

An alternative model we are currently proposing is that adopted by Runaya, which is the technology licensing agreement, which we believe will facilitate faster growth for us. We have recently signed a technology license with TMS International in the US, which is a leading service provider to the steel industry and are now expanding to provide their services to the aluminium industry. We are also considering options in Europe and China. We are confident that our process is a must for the industry worldwide and the necessary alternative to toxic salt cake and landfills.

AlCircle: How do you position TAHA with the global aluminium industry in the coming five years?

Mr Frank Pollmann: TAHA currently operates within its customers' operational sites in Bahrain, as a licensor in Indian and is actively seeking new business in other companies in the Gulf, Europe, and North America. A key aspect of achieving TAHA's mission in assisting the aluminium industry and changing the way it handles dross is its awareness-raising policy, along with regional and global expansion. At the regional level, we are in talks with other foundries and downstream operators of the supply chain in the GCC.

Globally, as I have said previously, we see very promising opportunities in the United States and Europe, where it is claimed to deliver salinized foundry waste to landfills and its disposal is quite an expensive process. It is a big sector but with changing legislation, and the move towards “greener” aluminium, there is room for everyone going in the right direction, the one in which salinized treatment and landfills must be replaced by innovative value-added products, derived from "depleted dross" that is a rich mineral resource. TAHA philosophy is that environmental issues are becoming increasingly important: reducing, recycling, reusing must become a way of life.

 

source https://alcircle.com/interview/detail/68972/tahas-salt-free-technologies-have-been-patented-in-order-to-process-aluminium-dross-to-recover-that-same-aluminium-metal-and-the-residuals-are-then-fu