Metal start-up Runaya is in talks with Hindalco Industries and the state-owned National Aluminium Company (NALCO) to set up an aluminium dross recycling plant on their premises.
Through the dross processing facility, the manufacturer will be able to recover about 15-20 percent additional aluminium which otherwise would have been part of waste material.
Currently, Vedanta is the only client of Runaya, which is now looking to expand its clientele in the domestic market.
Dross is an otherwise waste product that gets produced during aluminium smelting. At present, there is no solution for its comprehensive disposal even globally, resulting in aluminium dross ending up at landfills.
The metal start-up has set up its first aluminium dross recycling plant within Vedanta’s Jharsuguda smelter facility in Odisha. The company is also in the process of setting up another dross-processing unit at Vedanta’s BALCO facility, which is scheduled for commissioning by October 2021.
Apart from enhancing aluminium metal recovery, dross processing technology also helps create value-added products that cater to the steel industry in the country.
The company had signed a technology licensing pact with Taha International for aluminium dross processing to recover metal and create value-added products. The agreement with Taha (International) is such that we pay them a royalty for this technology license.
The value-added product created is used between one-five kg per tonne of steel. Runaya plans to produce 18,000 tonne of value-added product for FY22, which it will then take to 24,000 tonne in FY23.
The overall team at Runaya comprises 70-75 direct employees. With contract employees included, the workforce count stands at about 1,000. Runaya so far has been largely funded through personal equity.