Flanders Metals Valley, climate-neutral and circular metallurgical cluster in Flanders

With the Paris agreement, industry has to become climateneutral by 2050, and show large reductions by 2030. Many processes in steel and non-ferrous production are using fossil products, be it for thermal or chemical application. Technologies will have to be adapted or innovated. Europe has launched the Green Deal, a program that will make European society (including industry) climate-neutral. Green technologies are part of the solution to get there. Metals play an important role in solar and wind energy, as well as in battery technology. Europe including Flanders has limited resources for these metals, compared to other world regions. The circular economy will maximise re-utilisation and decrease dependency on metals import. This demands a circular metals industry.

Today, metallurgical companies in Flanders/ Belgium already excel in recycling metals from secondary sources, with high recovery rates and low energy usage. Metallurgical plants not only recycle consumer goods, but also intermediate products from other plants. By refining each other’s intermediates, these companies achieve higher recovery rates than they would on their own. This (economydriven) ecosystem of companies acting together leads to world-class overall recovery rates. The whole value chain around metal recycling and production is present in Belgium/Flanders: from scrap collection to product manufacturing and by-product valorisation. The existing network of companies is well-positioned to transition into a fully circular industry. This industrial competence has always been supported by a strong educational and research effort from universities and research centres.

Therefore, a group of companies, universities and research institutions set up Flanders Metals Valley as an organisation to unite the stakeholders of the closed loop of metals. It was launched March 31st 2021, and organised its first workshop on June 23rd 2021. (FIN)OCAS strongly supports the Flanders Metals Valley initiative, is represented in its steering committee and workgroups and participates in events. With the courtesy of Flanders Metals Valley