Aluminum Scrap Markets
October 30, 2025
Hydro, University of Michigan partner on automotive alloy project
Written by Nicholas Bell
Hydro and the University of Michigan have launched a five-year, $2.5 million research partnership to improve automotive alloy performance across multiple life cycles.
The collaboration, Hydro’s first with a university in the US, is dubbed the Center for Recycling, Extrusion, and Aluminum Technology (Create). It aims to drive applied research in circular-economy metallurgy and low-energy scrap processing.
The partnership expands on the Department of Energy-funded initiative led by UM researcher Daniel Cooper, which maps automotive aluminum supply chains, dismantles end-of-life vehicle systems and designs and tests recycled extrusion alloys at Hydro’s Innovation and Technology Center in Troy, Michigan, and at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington. Padnos facilities across Michigan handle dismantling, shredding, and separation of end-of-life vehicles for the project under that initiative.
Partnership details
Three UM research teams lead complementary projects within Create. One team is testing whether applying a low electric current to molten recycled aluminum during solidification can reduce iron impurities. Another team is studying how targeted chemical additions can suppress these impurities and stabilize mechanical properties. A third team is using computational modeling to design alloys and casting methods that tolerate higher recycled content without sacrificing quality.
The partnership builds on expertise developed through UM’s previous DOE-supported initiatives, which explored methods to increase the recycled content of automotive aluminum sheet and end-of-life design.
At Hydro’s Innovation and Technology Center in Troy, engineers will cast and test the alloys designed with UM researchers. Once an alloy progresses beyond the lab phase, Hydro’s Aluminum Technology Center alongside the company’s Cassopolis, Michigan, extrusion ingot plant will validate and scale them through accredited performance and production-based testing.
Relocation and development
The partnership follows Hydro’s expansion and relocation of its Aluminum Technology Center to the Cassopolis, Michigan, from Zeeland, Michigan.
Hydro’s Cassopolis ingot plant itself opened in 2023. The $150-million facility produces 120,000 metric tons of aluminum extrusion ingot per year and serves as North America’s first large-scale producer of Hydro CIRCAL, an alloy made with at 75% post-consumer scrap.
The Cassopolis site now houses the Aluminum Technology Center intended to support Hydro’s Henderson, Kentucky; its Commerce, Texas plants; and Cassopolis on-site.
