__________________________________________________________________________________ Advanced
Alloy Services
“ We plan to partner with Rolls-Royce for further R & D work on metal recovery, and the processes we’ re developing will have significant potential for other businesses in the supply chain where alloys containing critical metals are used. We hope to quantify the carbon savings of recycling and recovery processes of critical metals versus the massive carbon emissions from overseas mining and refining operations. From prior studies, it’ s estimated that the saving could be as much as 98 percent, which will be a significant driver for innovation within recycling and recovery processes.
“ While the UK is recognized as a global leader in innovation, many large companies do not always embrace innovation due to perceived risks, stretched resources, approval structure, and concern about shareholder value. In a world now focused on critical minerals and metals, it’ s soul-destroying to see examples of poor recycling and revert processing.
“ AAS, however, is committed to supporting UK innovation. We’ ve supported a PhD student for a couple of years, and we’ re excited about the Knowledge Transfer Project with Coventry University and Innovate UK. We are trying to develop a process of recovering critical metals from superalloys using bioleaching technology, which would develop new or better routes of recycling and recovering metals, as well as supporting the resilience of UK supply chains and reducing the environmental impact from primary mining operations.”
Global presence
As our conversation ends, Stephen turns his attention to the company’ s growth strategy moving forward.“ We want to establish a footprint in the UK, US, and Asia, as this combination will enable us to source and deliver to any of our customers quickly and efficiently,” he shares.“ To bring together the different entities under one recognized umbrella, we’ re forming Advanced Alloys Group.
“ We have a new JV project starting this year with the opening of a brand-new factory in Asia. This location will provide a perfect platform to process some of the material we source from Asia and for us to further expand sales in the region. We’ re also expanding our capabilities in the US with investment and development of AR. We’ ve installed processing equipment to enable us to source and process material domestically within the US, rather than coming to the UK first.
“ With the development of the US business, our JV in Asia, and the creation of the Advanced Alloys Group to cement the development of our global presence, we have a busy year ahead,” Stephen concludes.“ Within the next five years, we hope to see a well-established global presence of Advanced Alloys Group around the core Advanced Alloy Services Ltd business. We believe that this will incorporate new innovative processes for better metal recovery and recycling and ultimately, we hope to be able to license this technology to other companies.” ■
www. advancedalloys. co. uk
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