ABB Ltd. and Boliden, a Swedish mining and smelting business, have forged a strategic partnership to use low-carbon footprint copper in high-efficiency electric motors. The goal is to accelerate the transition to a more circular economy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Industrial electrical equipment needs copper to function, but producing copper requires a lot of energy. Low-carbon copper that is mined with non-fossil fuel has been created by Boliden. Additionally, it uses raw materials made from recycled goods to produce copper.
Green Copper Leads CO2 Emissions Reduction
Products made using "green" copper have a carbon footprint that is 65% less than the industry standard. An average 75kW motor contains about 80kg of copper and weighs 650kg. For each motor, using copper with a reduced carbon footprint will prevent roughly 200 kg of CO2 emissions.
ABB is working toward reducing the negative environmental effects of the raw materials used in its products by switching to lower carbon substitutes. The company is using more recycled electrical steel and aluminium in addition to recovered copper.
ABB Drive To Better Future
With the remaining 2% of its motors able to be burned to produce heat, ABB is already developing them to be up to 98% recyclable. According to this estimate, recycling copper, aluminium, and steel can result in energy savings of 75–95% compared to producing these materials from scratch.
In order to use it in its IE5 "ultra-premium" efficiency synchronous reluctance (SynRM) motors and European-made e-mobility motors, ABB will begin purchasing low-carbon and recycled copper from Boliden this year. ABB will also assist Boliden in locating ineffective low-voltage motors in its facilities so that they may be changed out for high-efficiency models and the outdated motors recycled to serve as a source of raw materials for Boliden's low-carbon footprint copper.
According to Ola Norén, head of metallurgy products for process industries at ABB, "as part of ABB's 2030 sustainability plan, our aim is for 80% of our products and solutions to be covered by a circularity approach. Working with Boliden is a crucial step towards achieving this objective. From 2023 on, recycled hollow copper conductors will be used in all of our metallurgy products.”
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Technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master, it was rightly said. Electronic devices have grown into an inevitable part of our daily lives.
