Description

Aluminium or aluminum is a chemical element with symbol Al and atomic number thirteen (13). It is a silvery-white, soft, nonmagnetic and ductile metal in the boron group. By mass, aluminium makes up about eight percent (8%) of the Earth’s crust; it is the third most abundant element after oxygen and silicon and the most abundant metal in the crust, though it is less common in the mantle below.

The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite. Aluminium metal is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is found combined in over two hundred and seventy (270) different minerals

The demand for aluminium products is growing steadily because of their positive contribution to modern living. Aluminium is the second most widely used metal whereas the aluminum can is the most recycled consumer product in the world. Aluminium finds extensive use in air, road and sea transport; food and medicine; packaging; construction; electronics and electrical power transmission.

The excellent recyclability of aluminium, together with its high scrap value and low energy needs during recycling make aluminium highly desirable to one and all. The global aluminum demand is forecasted to soar to nearly seventy million (70,000,000) tons by 2020 from around thirty-seven million (37,000,000) tons currently.

The contribution of recycled metal to the global output of aluminium products has increased from seventeen percent (17%) in 1960 to thirty-four percent (34%) today, and expected to rise to almost forty percent (40%) by 2020. Global recycling rates are high, with approximately ninety percent (90%) of the metal used for transport and construction applications recovered, and over sixty percent (60%) of used beverage cans are collected.

Aluminium does not degrade during the recycling process, since its atomic structure is not altered during melting. Aluminium recycling is both economically and environmentally effective, as recycled aluminium requires only five percent (5%) of the energy used to make primary aluminium, and can have the same properties as the parent metal. Infact, aluminium can be recycled endlessly without loss of material properties.

Aluminum can is the most recycled consumer product in the world. Each year, the aluminum industry pays out more than US$800 million for empty aluminum cans. Recycling aluminium cans is a closed-loop process since used beverage cans that are recycled are primarily used to make beverage cans.

Recycled aluminium cans are used again for the production of new cans or for the production of other valuable aluminium products such as engine blocks, building facades or bicycles. In Europe about fifty percent (50%) of all semi-fabricated aluminium used for the production of new beverage cans and other aluminium packaging products comes from recycled aluminium.

Presently, the rate of waste generation in Lagos (with estimated population over ten (10,000,000) million in 2012) is nine thousand (9, 000) tonnes/day (source- Lagos State Waste Management Authority – LAWMA) while in Kano State, the rate is three thousand, eight hundred and forty nine (3, 849) tonnes/day (source- Bayero University Kano Consultancy Unit).

Generally, the average rate of generation is estimated as 0.5kg/capital/day. Some of the waste generated includes aluminium can, paper, glass and plastic and with the use of technology, these products can be transformed into useful products again.

This report is to examine the financial viability or otherwise of establishing a Aluminium UBC (Used Beverage Can) recycling plant in Nigeria. The plant would produce aluminium ingot and the product would be exported.

The proposed plant comprise of one (1) set of press ingots machine, melting furnace and automatic casting ingots line. Other supplying equipment and machines are Project Vehicles, Weigh Bridge, Wood Pallets, AGO / PMS storage tank and Generator.

The capacity of the plant is two hundred (200) kg per hour aluminium can recycling plant and the plant would operate at eighty percent (80%) of the installed capacity working double shifts of eight (8) hours each in three hundred (300) day per annum producing one hundred and twenty-eight (128) tons bi-monthly with two percent (2%) weigh loss during the production process.

Aluminium ingots would have a percentage purity of 99% -99.99%, each ingot would weigh twenty-five (25) kg per ingot and packaged in wooden case of one thousand (1,000) kg per pallet.