Aluminium scrap leakage is also often driven by information asymmetry and inefficient market matching

In an exclusive interview with AL Circle as part of the latest initiative, “European Aluminium Recycling Market”, Ivan Mayorov of CANCOM Austria AG outlined the company’s role in building the digital infrastructure for RecAL, a Horizon Europe project designed to improve Europe’s aluminium supply chain and metals marketplace, enabling them to address long-standing challenges such as data sovereignty, traceability and transparency. Ivan believes information asymmetry and inefficient market matching often leads to scrap leakage. So, in his view, a transparent yet sovereign data exchange is important to create a more efficient internal European market for scrap.

Ivan Mayorov at CANCOM Austria AG is a Manager of Digital Sovereignty Team, co-created & now guides a dedicated, business value-focused team of senior system architects, market analysts & engineers responsible for driving strategic delivery and development of decentralised system architecture enabling secure and AI-ready cross domain data collaboration, supporting European digital sovereignty, reducing vendor lock-in and fostering interoperable, trusted data ecosystems. He is also a board member of the RecAL Horizon Europe Initiative and is in GAIA-X Austria Management Board.

AL Circle: How does CANCOM’s technology partnership with RecAL help address Europe’s core aluminium recycling challenges, particularly scrap traceability, quality transparency and cross-border material flow visibility?

Ivan Mayorov: CANCOM provides the sovereign digital infrastructure that enables RecAL to function as a trusted, cross-company and institution data ecosystem rather than a centralised platform. This is critical for addressing long-standing challenges such as data sovereignty, traceability and transparency.

Through the RecAL Dataspace, material flows can be tracked across organisational and national boundaries without requiring participants to relinquish control over their data. Scrap origin, processing steps, and quality parameters remain with the data owner but can be securely shared under clearly defined conditions. This creates end-to-end traceability while preserving data sovereignty.

At the same time, common data model, standardised data exchange and interoperable services enable a shared understanding of the European aluminium value chain. This improves transparency and allows recyclers, Tier1, OEMs, material research institutions and manufacturers to make better-informed decisions, especially in cross-border scenarios where trust and data consistency are often limiting factors.

AL Circle: Europe has recycling capacity, but purity, sorting accuracy and alloy separation remain critical issues. How can digital technologies provided by CANCOM improve efficiency and quality of recycled aluminium output?

Ivan Mayorov: The key is connecting previously isolated data points and making them actionable across the entire value chain.

CANCOM’s Dataspace with Zero Trust Federation approach enables the integration of material compound data, manufacturing, scrap quality, sorting information and alloy-specific knowledge into a unified, yet decentralised, system.

For example, data from advanced sorting systems can be combined with alloy design specifications and historical process feedback. This allows recyclers to better understand how input material characteristics affect final output quality.

In practice, this leads to:

• Robust traceability of EU scrap streams & more precise classification of scrap streams.
• Real-time supply-demand matching.
• Improved matching between scrap input and target alloy specifications.
• Continuous feedback loops that refine sorting and processing strategies.

The result is higher-purity recyclates, reduced downcycling and a measurable increase in the usability of recycled aluminium for high-performance applications (for example, aluminium recyclate cable manufacturing in the automotive sector).

AL Circle:  How is data collected, validated and analysed within the European aluminium recycling value chain? Also, what type of data is most valuable in this ecosystem, such as alloy composition, scrap origin, contamination level, carbon footprint or availability?

Ivan Mayorov: Data in the RecAL ecosystem can be collected directly at the source, such as sorting facilities, recycling plants and manufacturing sites. The data remains under full control of the respective stakeholder, where validation happens through a combination of technical and organisational mechanisms:

Standardised data models ensure consistency.

16. 100%  decentralisation with Quantum Encrypted Service Mesh for peer-to-peer data or services access.
16. Self-service Trust & Access Policy Management with data integrity, monitoring & traceability enabling 100% data sovereignty.
16. Open-Source and Cloud Agnostic (Public/Private/Hybrid/Multi Cloud) with No Vendor Lock-in resulting 100% infrastructure Flexibility.
16. With focus on European federated governance frameworks, like GAIA-X.
16. Analysis is performed either locally or in a distributed manner, depending on the use case, enabling participants to extract insights without exposing all of the sensitive raw data.
16. The most valuable data types include alloy compositions and metallurgical properties, scrap origin and processing, contamination levels, impurity profiles, material availability and carbon footprint, together with Life Cycle Analysis data for sustainability metrics.
16. The real value, however, emerges when these data points (trust domains) are combined, enabling predictive and data-driven decision-making across the value chain.

AL Circle: Aluminium scrap leakage is a major concern in Europe. How can CANCOM’s technology help recyclers maximise the value of limited scrap resources?

Ivan Mayorov: In my opinion, aluminium scrap leakage is also often driven by information asymmetry and inefficient market matching. By enabling a transparent yet sovereign data exchange, CANCOM’s technology helps create a more efficient internal European market for scrap. Recyclers gain better visibility into available materials, quality and potential use cases, which reduces the likelihood that valuable scrap is exported or underutilised.

In addition, improved traceability and quality transparency increase trust between market participants. This makes it easier to allocate high-quality scrap to the most suitable applications, maximising its economic and environmental value.

The combination of better matching, higher quality output, and increased trust helps retain more value within Europe and reduces dependency on primary aluminium.

AL Circle: Can you please highlight a few achievements of your partnership with RecAL, such as faster material screening, better matching of recyclates or reduced process inefficiencies? How do CANCOM and RecAL plan to scale this digital ecosystem from pilot-level collaboration to broader industrial adoption across Europe?

Ivan Mayorov: The collaboration has already demonstrated tangible progress in several areas, especially the RecAL example of collaborative value creation enabling:

• 40% faster life cycle analysis
• 30% faster screening of new materials
• 95% lower energy consumption through the use of recycled aluminum

For that and more, RecAL was awarded the ÖGUT Environmental Prize 2025 in the category “Research & Innovation for the Circular Economy”.

From a strategic perspective, one of the most important outcomes is proof that a federated, cross-border data ecosystem can work in an industrial setting without compromising data ownership. The successful implementation of a decentralised, sovereign Dataspace architecture in a multi-partner environment will enable cross-border collaboration with non-EU members.

Scaling will focus on onboarding additional industrial partners across the value chain, expanding standardised data models and interoperability frameworks (especially creating data ecosystems with dataspaces like CATENA-X), integrating further business use cases, including AI-driven analytics and simulation, and further aligning with broader European initiatives such as IDSA to ensure compatibility and adoption at scale.

The goal is to evolve from a project-based ecosystem into a widely adopted industrial standard for aluminium recycling in Europe.

AL Circle: In your view, what are the biggest practical barriers to digital adoption in aluminium recycling: lack of standardised data, legacy systems, cost, and reluctance to share information or fragmented regulations?

Ivan Mayorov: The main barriers are less about technology itself and more about alignment across stakeholders, with a lack of internationally standardised data models and the later costly data mapping services. Addressing these barriers requires a combination of technology and governance. In this sense, digital sovereignty is not just a technical solution; it is a condition for industrial adoption. Only when companies trust the network security and infrastructure will they be willing to share data and unlock the full potential of a circular aluminium economy.