PyroGenesis Canada Inc (CVE:PYR) (OTCQB:PYRNF) told investors Tuesday that operating its DROSRITE metal waste treatment machinery onsite at smelters’ facilities has given it a firsthand look at challenges facing the industry and afforded it opportunities to pitch solutions.
DROSRITE treats aluminum dross, a waste which forms as hot metal is being smelted. Smelters skim dross off because it acts as a sponge absorbing valuable metal, and DROSRITE works to recover as much of that metal as possible and return it to smelters.
DROSRITE, unlike some other treatment options, doesn’t use salt, which can contaminate the dross. For that reason, salt is often banned from being used onsite, hence the need for smelters to seek offsite treatments. DROSRITE solves that problem.
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“With metal manufacturers, such as aluminum, being subjected to increased pressure from regulatory authorities to eliminate landfilling of hazardous salt cakes from traditional recovery operations, combined with tight operating margins, PyroGenesis’ DROSRITE system is able to increase metal recovery, without producing any hazardous by-products, while at the same time reducing operating costs,” PyroGenesis wrote.
Dross is made of 60% metal and 40% residual residue, the company explained. Often that residue ends up in landfills, to the chagrin of environmental regulators. PyroGenesis is working to solve that problem too by treating both the dross and the residue.
To do so, the company believes it can convert a particular residue into ammonium sulphate or aluminum sulphate, both of which are considered high value chemical products.
“We effectively would be converting these landfilled products into useful commodities with obvious benefits to the environment,” the company wrote. “If successful, the combination of treating dross and residues will create what we believe to be one of the first, if not the first, global onsite dross processor delivering a zero-landfill/reduced carbon solution. We would be offering, in our opinion, the ultimate green solution to this problem.”
If all the dross produced globally was treated with DROSRITE, PyroGenesis estimates it could reduce more than 4 million tons of greenhouse gas each year, equivalent to taking 875,000 cars off the road annually.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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