Aluminum Consortium Receives Major Funding.

Business Editors

LEXINGTON, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2000

Secat, Inc., a newly formed private-public partnership serving as a technical platform for the aluminum industry, has been awarded $7.1 million for two major aluminum research contracts from the Office of Industrial Technologies, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Division of the U.S. Department of Energy.

The contracts, aimed at reducing waste, lowering energy consumption and enhancing quality in the production and fabrication processes of aluminum products, are to be equally cost-shared over three years between nine aluminum companies and the Department of Energy.

Secat, based at the University of Kentucky, is a cooperative effort involving the aluminum industry, the University of Kentucky, the Kentucky Economic Development Cabinet, the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. National Laboratories.

The first research project, centering on oxidative metal loss, is aimed at gaining a fundamental understanding of dross formation at high temperatures to find ways to lower the loss. Dross is a mixture of aluminum metal and oxides that forms at the top of the molten metal in aluminum smelting furnaces. This reduction will lead to higher metal quality, which means less scrap, higher throughput and lower costs. Full-scale implementation of this project will also result in savings of 58 trillion Btu by the year 2020, which would supply a city such as Lexington, Kentucky, with an approximate population of 170,000, with a year's worth of energy.

The second project will assist the aluminum industry in improving quality and lowering energy consumption through reducing the incidence of ingot cracks from the current level of five percent down to two percent.

Ingot cracking is caused by stresses that develop in ingot casting operations. These stresses can be caused by several factors such as temperature, friction and contraction when molten metal solidifies.

Implementation of the results of this second research project will lead to energy savings in excess of 6 trillion Btu by the year 2020, enough energy to burn 1.5 million 100-watt light bulbs constantly for one year.

"We are very thankful to those who have devoted their time and energy to make this happen; the partner aluminum companies, the national labs, the University of Kentucky, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Department of Energy. Most importantly we are very thankful to the aluminum companies and the DOE for their funding and support." said Dr. Subodh Das, president of Secat.

Secat is the only aluminum research consortium in the nation supported by a university, in addition to support from government and private industry.

"Secat is poised to make domestic aluminum companies more competitive in the global market by performing basic and applied research to lower energy and production cost," remarked Das.

The cost savings of these projects could reach the consumer as the aluminum industry reduces energy consumption and manufacturing costs.

Both projects will involve three national laboratories: Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Argonne, Chicago, Ill.; and Albany, Ore. Aluminum companies involved in the projects are: Alcan Aluminum Corp.; ARCO Aluminum Inc.; Commonwealth Aluminum; Hydro Aluminum, Louisville Inc.; IMCO Recycling Inc.; Logan Aluminum Inc.; McCook Metals; NSA Division of Southwire Co.; and Wagstaff.

Secat is located at UK's Coldstream Research Campus, where Secat provides space, hardware and support service to individual companies and university researchers. At Secat, personnel from the university and from the private sector collaborate on projects while individual companies develop proprietary projects. Secat manages the Coldstream facility and coordinates non-university resources in the pursuit of specific research goals.