Multimillion investment in C.C. Umwelt’s metal refinement facility

C.C. Umwelt, one of the leading disposal and recycling specialists for incineration waste in Germany and a Novum Capital portfolio company, is unveiling its new metal refinement machinery today. C.C. has christened the new machinery “Stratego”. It will operate at the company’s premises, which are located at the Rhine harbour in Krefeld. With this ground-breaking technology, C.C. Umwelt is set to perform a quantum leap in the recovery of raw materials from waste incineration slags.

Metal extraction by type and direct marketing

“Stratego” can extract non-ferrous metals (NF metals) from waste incineration slags by type. It separates so-called light NF metals (mainly aluminium) contained in the slag from “heavy” NF metals (in particular: copper, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium). Before installing “Stratego”, C.C. Umwelt was able to extract light and heavy NF metals as one big mixture only. The economic benefit of “Stratego” is that C.C. Umwelt can now market the metals that are extracted by type directly to metal smelters. In the value creation process, the stage of “metal separation and sorting” can thus be performed in-house by C.C., using “Stratego”.

Expanded range of services and contribution to environmental protection

Dr. Georg Rottländer, Project Lead for “Stratego“ at C.C. Umwelt, says: “Today, we are bringing to life a great idea. The new machinery will process all NF metals that we extract from slag at our sites. We will also be offering the ‘Stratego’ technology to other companies as a service.”

With “Stratego“, C.C. Umwelt is expanding its service portfolio, which already includes the processing and recycling of slags, the processing of municipal waste, and the disposal of filter dust from waste incineration plants. C.C. Managing Director, Dieter Kersting, explains: “With the help of ‘Stratego’, we are not only developing our business model, but also making an even greater contribution to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. Both are important for climate protection, customer satisfaction, and company growth.”

Renowned development partners attend unveiling ceremony

C.C. Umwelt developed “Stratego“ in cooperation with environmental engineering company, Hamburg-Umwelt-Recyclingtechnologien (H-U-R) GmbH, and the Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). The unveiling ceremony will open with an introduction to metal finishing in Germany by Markus Gleis, a senior advisor with the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau-Roßlau.

Dr. Jochen Hoffmeister, Head of the Waste & Secondary Raw Materials Division at Düsseldorf-based economic research facility, Prognos, will then talk about how significant the production standard achieved by C.C. is for the circular economy. He will also explain how “Stratego” helps to reduce CO₂ levels.

This will be followed by a talk by Prof. Dr. Kerstin Kuchta from the TUHH, explaining in detail how metallic raw materials can be sustainably recovered from waste incineration plants – and what part “Stratego” will play in this.

Find out more about C.C. Umwelt here.

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