This is the company’s fifth acquisition since being acquired by Stellex Capital Management LP.

Fenix Parent LLC, a recycler of original equipment manufacturer automotive parts in Hurst, Texas, operating as Fenix Parts LLC, announced it has acquired the assets of Charlie’s Truck & Auto Parts in Tomball, Texas. This is the fifth acquisition completed by Fenix Parts since the company was acquired by affiliates of Stellex Capital Management LP in 2018.

According to a news release from Fenix, Charlie’s is a full-service automotive recycling facility servicing the Houston market. This acquisition represents Fenix Parts’ second location in Texas and a key addition to its Southwest supply chain and distribution network.

“Fenix Parts is a Texas-headquartered company, and we have been working on expanding our Texas footprint beyond the Dallas-Fort Worth market,” says Bill Stevens, CEO of Fenix Parts. “The acquisition of Charlie’s is our first step in executing this plan as we develop significant production capacity at this location and expand our total addressable market into Houston. We are excited about our expansion plans into other Texas markets.”

Current auto recycling owners interested in learning more about Fenix’s acquisition process should email info@fenixparts.com.

The aluminum recycler is spending $10 million to add a new warehouse in addition to newly installed pollution-control equipment.

Spectro Alloys, a Rosemount, Minnesota-based aluminum recycler, says it will invest nearly $10 million in plant upgrades that include a new warehouse and new pollution0control equipment. The upgrades should be completed in early 2022, according to a news release from the company.

Founded in 1973, Spectro purchases a range of aluminum scrap, such as aluminum cast, sheet, extrusions, turnings, mixed low-copper clips (MLCC), rims and zorba. Spectro also purchases radiators, painted aluminum siding, twitch and tweak.

In 2015, Spectro installed a scrap sorting plant at its facility. The company also operates two reverberatory (reverb) furnaces and employs continuous casting, which allows it to constantly add scrap to the furnace while tapping out specification metal, a delacquering kiln to remove coatings from the aluminum scrap it processes, a shredding system and a rotary furnace it has been operating since November 2018.

Spectro Alloys says it will break ground this week on a new 70,000-square-foot building on its property near Highway 55 in Rosemount. The warehouse will reduce truck traffic in and out of the facility while streamlining the production, shipping and receiving processes for safety and efficiency, the company says. The building, which will be completed in the spring of 2022, will be optimized for solar power and will use process heat to reduce the company’s energy consumption. The project will include trees and native prairie landscaping. 

Spectro says it already has invested more than $3 million in equipment and baghouse upgrades that were completed in August to enhance its process automation and controls and expand the company’s environmental benefits. Baghouses are traditionally attached to furnaces within plant environments to capture and clean emissions. While these air filtration systems are standard for the recycling process, Spectro’s new equipment improves emissions control beyond industry standards, according to the company.

The baghouse upgrades are a result of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and an administrative consent order related to alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The order required Spectro to install a new baghouse to control emissions from the furnace, including the hearth; upgrade the dryer baghouse; install new capture hoods; and make additional improvements to the dryer closed vent system. The company also must increase emissions monitoring and make improvements to the facility’s operations, maintenance and monitoring plan. The consent agreement and final order also require Spectro Alloys Corporation to pay a $110,000 penalty to the federal government. 

“At our core, Spectro Alloys’ work is about delivering a positive impact for the planet and our customers by extending the life cycle of aluminum through recycling,” Luke Palen, president of Spectro Alloys, says. “We describe what we do as ‘Recycling for Life’, which is why our aluminum recycling process meets the highest environmental and air quality standards. These investments demonstrate our commitment to continuous innovation for the environment and our community.”

Spectro Alloys provides recycled aluminum alloys to regional die casters and foundries, where it is made into new products for the automotive, power sports, home, turf and snow maintenance and other industries.  

*This article was updated Sept. 24, 2021, to add information about the administrative consent order related to alleged Clean Air Act violations.

Our report shares insights into the U.S. recycling sector pulled from surveys of material recovery facility operators, haulers and government officials, as well as from roundtable discussions.

Earlier this summer, Recycling Today and Waste Today partnered to produce a survey that was administered by Readex Research of Stillwater, Minnesota, with the intention of gauging the state of the municipal recycling industry in the U.S. The results were published in the September issue of Recycling Today. Of the 188 respondents, 46 percent indicated they were in the government sector, 41 percent identified as haulers and 12 percent indicated they were material recovery facility (MRF) operators. 

Research for this report was funded by sponsors CP Manufacturing of San Diego and Shred-Tech of Cambridge, Ontario.

In addition to the survey, the staff of Recycling Today hosted three virtual roundtables in the spring: one with MRF operators, one with government recycling officials and one with representatives from consumer packaged goods companies. (Some of the MRF operators who participated in the roundtable and some of the government participants also offer hauling services.) 

The survey results and the roundtables help to illustrate the resilient and adaptable nature of the U.S. recycling industry. Respondents share how they are responding to recent challenges, including those related to the pandemic; the areas they are investing in within their businesses and communities; and contracting practices. 

Excerpts from the roundtable discussions, as well as results from the survey Readex sent out on our behalf, are included in The State of the Municipal Recycling Industry report. However, w e had more content than the print issue allowed, so we created a special section on the Recycling Today website where we are sharing additional information over the month of September. Be sure to check it out at www.RecyclingToday.com/keyword/soi-municipal. 

Steinert’s Karl Hoffmann weighs in on advances in aluminum scrap sorting and the market for “greener” aluminum.

Global magnetics equipment provider Steinert GmbH, based in Cologne, Germany, has conducted an interview with Karl Hoffmann, the global sales director of its Metal Recycling Division.

In the interview, Hoffmann gives his thoughts on aluminum recycling, technological breakthroughs. the distinctive features of the aluminum market and his expectations for the future.

Karl Hoffmann (KH): Basically, you have to compare primary and secondary aluminum. In the case of primary aluminum, firstly bauxite has to be mined and then a complex process is undertaken to produce aluminum oxide from this. This is a very energy-intensive process, which causes a lot of environmental pollution.

By using scrap aluminum in smelting works, much less energy is used. What’s more, the aluminum can be used again and again – in theory, it can be recycled infinitely. And the figures involved are significant: around 75 percent of the aluminum ever produced is still in circulation. This is, firstly, because products made from aluminum have a long life and secondly because metal can be recycled with great ease.

KH: You can assume a saving of up to 95 percent. Of course, this is great news for climate protection. Recycling aluminum has the potential to produce 92 percent fewer CO2 emissions than new aluminum. In 2019, 20 million metric tons of aluminum was recycled globally, which is an equivalent saving of 300 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.

Processing 1 metric ton of aluminum scrap also saves 8 metric tons of bauxite from having to be mined. All things considered, it’s a saving of 14,000 kilowatt hours (kWh).

These days to be able to produce certain quality alloys, we still need primary aluminum, the manufacturing process for which is highly energy-intensive. Maintaining high quality levels for recycled aluminum requires intelligent cycles using highly efficient recycling technologies, such as sensor-based sorting technology. This can then compensate for the downgrading of material qualities experienced in the recycling cycle, which also enables secondary aluminum to be efficiently used in the production of what are known as aluminum wrought alloys.

KH: There are hundreds of different alloys and, depending on the requirements of the application in question, they provide various mechanical properties, such as strength or hardness. Developments in this field are highly dynamic. In the automotive sector, for example, it has long been standard to produce body parts from aluminum. And now, supporting parts, like suspensions are being manufactured out of recently developed aluminum alloys or even aluminum compounds. Of course, the engine itself is already mainly made from cast aluminum. Several automotive manufacturers have already honed in on aluminum as a material. Aluminum’s lower weight helps them comply with ever tighter CO2 emission requirements; the density of aluminum is 2.7 times less that of steel.

Aluminum will also be a key material for electric vehicles (EVs). The more steel is replaced with aluminum, the greater the range of an EV. Its potential for the future is huge too.

Alongside these large potential savings in CO2 emissions driven by lightweight design in the automotive sector, this potential will also be boosted by the efficient and specific use of recycled aluminum to reduce greenhouse gases.

Using recycled aluminum consumes around 95 percent less energy than primary aluminum. But precise sorting technology is essential for ensuring high-quality recycled goods.

KH: It goes without saying that this depends a great deal on the input material. The quality needed of course also depends on its intended use. Course impurities, like plastics or wood, can be removed with relatively simple technology, involving eddy current separators.

Sensors can sort to a much finer degree. X-ray transmission technology is basically the same as that used in the medical profession where the absorption of X-ray radiation makes different material densities visible. When sorting metal, this means that pieces of metal on a conveyor belt can be radiated and classified into materials and purity levels to a high degree of accuracy.

The huge advances made in detection, software and the processing of signals deliver a combination of very accurate sorting and high speed. Compressed air is then used to separate good parts out from not-so-good ones.

KH: Smelting plants buy the metal to process it further. But there is also an option of further sorting the aluminum into alloys. The more precisely this is done, the more specifically the material can be used. We then inch ever closer to the goal of a closed cycle, in other words, a circular economy.

KH: Not long ago, we updated our system with X-ray transmission technology. We call the system XSS, which stands for X-ray and sensor sorting, the latest innovation bears the add-on EVO. This embodies developments made over the last five years. For example, we are now able to detect various material characteristics much more precisely than was previously the case. This is mainly thanks to enhanced signal processing. Nowadays, the systems are able to better separate out certain alloys. What’s more, we are also now able to separate free magnesium, a metal that is frequently found in aluminum scrap and if not detected causes considerable extra work in aluminum smelting works. This is challenging because, like aluminum, magnesium is a light metal and its absorption coefficients for X-ray radiation are therefore very similar.

KH: Yes, we have made the components in our systems even more resistant. The X-ray source, a key and costly component, for example, now comes with a four-year warranty, which is unique in the sector.

KH: Light metals allow weight and therefore CO2 to be saved in the mobility sector. The statutory requirements in this area are getting more and more stringent all the time so there is growing pressure on OEMs to implement lightweight solutions. At the same time, there is more and more interest from society in sustainable economies. Aluminum recyclers are therefore increasingly stating the share of recycled aluminum used. It can be assumed that demand for aluminum over the next few decades will increase by another 50 percent. An above-average amount of this will have to come from recycled material. Around 5 million tons of aluminum scrap is currently recycled a year in Europe. The figure globally is 20 million tons. Experts estimate that this figure will double over the next 10 years.

KH: Most of the material we sort today comes from vehicles or other products that were manufactured 10 or more years ago. The number of alloys used has increased since then. So, in the future, it will be important to be able to distinguish between alloys more accurately than we can today.

KH: Yes, and we have already developed them: laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, or LIBS for short. This involves firing at aluminum with a high-energy laser. When the laser hits the metal, it turns into a metal vapor known as plasma. As it cools, it implodes and emits a measurable energy radiation, which is specific to that atom structure. This allows the various aluminum alloys to be determined with great accuracy.

If this technology is introduced across the board, we will be able to separate the alloys from one another so precisely that a circular economy is possible. The smelter facilities know what they need for their alloys. If a company can determine exactly what kind of material they have, then they can also establish what needs to be added to achieve the specified material properties.

KH: Greener Aluminum highlights the opportunities that this metal and its unique possibilities offer us in recycling. This does require intelligent recycling cycles and sorting technology, but it is already allowing us to produce closed material cycles for this important material.

Here at Steinert we are delighted that we are able to play a key role here through the work of our development teams and our specialist advisers in the field. The future that intelligently reusing this metal offers us is driving us to achieve even more and develop even smarter solutions.

Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials adds Henning Bloech as global director of sustainable solutions.

Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials (MCAM), a Reading, Pennsylvania-based business unit of Japan-based conglomerate Mitsubishi, has added Henning Bloech as its global director - sustainable solutions. Bloech will be based in Germany.

Bloech brings more than 15 years of experience in sustainability and corporate governance in Europe and North America to the organization, says MCAM.

His is a newly created position tasked with “developing circular economy ecosystems through partnerships and investments that allow us to take a strong leadership position and become a trusted partner,” states MCAM.

Bloech will be responsible for “executing our global circular economy strategy that includes business model/facilities and investments, capacity management, technology requirements, strategic partnerships, sustainable products and stakeholder education,” according to Mitsubishi.

Previously, Bloech was involved in the development and launch of UL’s Sustainable Building Performance business, having helped develop regional programs, testing standards and labels for buildings and indoor air quality.

On its website, MCAM indicates it makes and sells engineering plastics, composite materials, wire and cable coatings and other product lines tied to the use of plastic and polymers.