John Courtenay, Chairman of MQP, is a metallurgist with over four decades of global experience in aluminium casthouse technology. Having begun his career at Foseco International, he founded MQP in 2000 to revolutionise melt quality and grain refinement solutions that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and product performance across the aluminium value chain. He shares insights on how advanced grain refinement and digital innovations are reshaping aluminium manufacturing towards greater efficiency, circularity and sustainability.
In an interview for "Sustainability & Recycling: Aluminium's Dual Commitment", John Courtenay discusses how MQP’s innovations, Optifine and Opticast, are redefining aluminium manufacturing by drastically reducing waste, emissions and energy consumption. He highlights the company’s commitment to circularity, digitalisation and efficiency, empowering casthouses and foundries to achieve sustainable, low-cost operations without compromising quality.
AL Circle: How do you help casthouses and foundries achieve sustainability while maintaining efficient, low-cost operations?
John Courtenay: Aluminium is a game-changer when it comes to energy transition towards low carbon energy sources. But the manufacturing process does involve masses of energy and we are striving to combat that. The backbone of our grain refiners is around optimising efficiency beyond anything that has gone before, saving casthouses money, but also massively reducing waste and addition rates.
Our Optifine 5:1 125 grain refiner, for example, cuts addition rates by 90% when compared with standard grain refiners. This reduction in material usage translates to fewer emissions, less waste sent to landfills, and a notable decrease in overall operating costs - typically by 50% across various aluminium alloys.
Optifine 5:1 125 now has a 130% relative efficiency compared with Optifine 3:1, which, in itself, is three times more efficient than standard grain refiners on the market. This was achieved through our ongoing work with Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) at Brunel University of London, which is dedicated to fundamental and applied research on the solidification of metallic materials, providing advanced solutions in lifecycle management for a circular economy, driving sustainability and efficiency. As part of this, we are a key sponsor of BCAST’s Centre for Circular Metals.
Today, Optifine 5:1 125 is made with low carbon aluminium, manufactured using hydro-electric power or wind power, through a ‘closed loop’ process. As part of this, we recycle customers’ scrap to make our product, taking customers’ production scrap aluminium and melting it down to create our grain refiners, as well as master alloys, which they ultimately buy back. This brings with it its own challenges, but we’ll come onto that later.
AL Circle: Can you explain your Opticast technology and its contribution to sustainability?
John Courtenay: Our Opticast grain refiner testing system was originally invented to help casthouses have an accurate measurement of how their grain refiner was performing. The inconsistency of grain refiner performance was a huge challenge, leading to inefficiency that not only impacted operational costs, but also resulted in unnecessary resource consumption and environmental waste. The introduction of Opticast marked a turning point.
Developed through a partnership with Opticast Aluminium AB, this innovative technology allows casthouses to precisely measure furnace nucleation and determine the exact amount of grain refiner required for optimal results. By eliminating guesswork and reducing the tendency to overuse grain refiners, Opticast directly cuts down on material waste, thereby lowering the environmental footprint of aluminium production.
To dig deeper into innovation and sustainability of aluminium casthouse, read the complete interview here.
