Spectro Alloys infuses $10 million in Rosemount aluminium-recycling plant

The industry-leading technology user to recycle aluminium for regional die casters and foundries, Spectro Alloys of Rosemount, Minnesota is infusing $10 million to make its recycling plant, the Upper Midwest's biggest processor of industrial aluminium, applying high standards of safety and with high energy efficiency.

Spectro Alloys resolved an air-pollution issue with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May 2021 by paying a $110,000 civil penalty and installing pollution-control equipment on one of its furnaces, worth expending $250,000.

The family-owned business, Spectro Alloys President Luke Palen said: “The Company already had planned improvements that far exceeded that fix.”

"These investments demonstrate our commitment to continuous innovation for the environment and our community. We proposed an equipment upgrade that … was well beyond what was required”, Palen added.

Furthermore, to the upgrade of one of its three furnaces, Spectro just accomplished a new $3 million "baghouse" and related equipment.

Palen said: “Baghouses are attached to furnaces to capture emissions. Spectro's new baghouse goes well beyond government and industry standards in terms of worker safety, pollution abatement and energy efficiency.”

The new baghouse, where red-hot, 28-pound aluminium ingots arrive from the furnace, will be cooled by ambient air instead of huge fans using a lot of energy.

"The big improvement is the environment for the workers working with the finished product. When I started working in the plant as a teenager, you could only put the cast aluminium on pallets by hand, with a shovel. We've gone to robotic palletizing. It's a very hot metal that comes off the end of the casting line, from the furnace. This is much safer”, Palen said.

Spectro also has also developed a 70,000-square-foot warehouse addition to its 90,000-square-foot facility that will be heated with waste heat from the production process.

The upcoming new warehouse, to be accomplished by next spring, will also reduce truck traffic and make shipping more efficient, as Spectro will not need to use a smaller secondary warehouse nearby for finished-good temporary storage.

Spectro is funding the refurbishment and additions with equity and debt, while Palen, said: “Revenue and profitability, varies depending upon aluminium prices, declined to quantify Spectro's sales and profitability.”

The Rosemount recycling company procures aluminium scrap, from radiators to siding, cars, old planes, lawnmowers and other equipment. In 2015, Spectro installed scrap-sorting equipment and two reverberator furnaces.

Palen said: “Spectro gets virtually all its scrap from U.S. producers of recycled feedstock. About half the aluminium products manufactured in America are made from virgin-mined bauxite and most of that is imported from China, using coal power.

"We use 95% less energy and generate 95% less carbon dioxide.”