Novelis expands research partnership with Georgia Tech aiming at enhancing innovations using recycled aluminium

On Wednesday, September 8, Novelis Inc., the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, declared that it expanded its research partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) Novelis Innovation Hub, aiming at enhancing materials and process research to help Novelis build a sustainable world and achieve a net zero carbon footprint by 2050.

The expansion of partnership will work on accelerating the pace of innovation via high throughput development methodologies and artificial intelligence and developing new generations of electric vehicle batteries using the higher amount of recycled aluminum.

Philippe Meyer, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Novelis Inc., said: "Our collaboration provides an exciting opportunity to accelerate our R&D and to boost the performance of EV batteries (energy density) and recyclability, while lowering costs for automakers and battery manufacturers. But we want to go beyond and partner closely with Georgia Tech to help transform our industry to reach committed objectives toward sustainability."

The renewed partnership will also carry on with technical research, while initiating new strategic programmes including circular economy solutions or de-carbonization of the industrial footprint, promoting entrepreneurship, and incubation of new ventures. This will further accelerate commercialisation of new products.

Raj Gopalaswamy, Global Technology Director of New Domains, Novelis Inc., said: "To keep advancing the aluminum industry toward the circular economy, we must increase the pace of innovation and develop new solutions that demonstrate aluminum's superior sustainability benefits."

He added, "Through research partnerships with world-leading institutions like Georgia Tech, we can fulfill the growing needs for aluminum applications that help our customers meet their sustainability goals faster and more efficiently."

Shreyes Melkote, Executive Director of the Novelis Innovation Hub, Georgia Tech, said: "Collaboration between academia and industry will help speed the development of transformative solutions to meet the sustainability challenges we face today."

He further said, "We look forward to expanding our partnership with Novelis to address its critical scientific, technological and workforce needs by leveraging the wide-ranging expertise and talent of Georgia Tech faculty and students in sustainable technologies, advanced materials and manufacturing, artificial intelligence, data sciences and robotics."

According to Julia Kubanek, Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research at Georgia Tech, Novelis is a critical partner for Georgia Tech that can together accelerate product innovation across multiple sectors.

"As an Institute, we remain committed to our vision to foster world-class partnerships as we collaborate with Novelis. Our mutual interests in sustainability, clean energy and creative design of materials make this research partnership especially exciting for us," said Kubanek.