P. Peter Pascali, President and CEO of PyroGenesis on DROSRITE™, the salt-free, cost-effective system for aluminium recovery from dross

PyroGenesis Canada Inc. is a Company that designs, develops, manufactures and commercializes plasma waste-to-energy systems and plasma torch products. PyroGenesis' DROSRITE™ system is a salt-free, cost-effective process for maximizing aluminium recovery from dross, a waste generated in the smelting, processing and recycling process. Mr. P. Peter Pascali, President and CEO of PyroGenesis, provides a general update on its DROSRITE™ business line in the below interview:  

AlCircle: Please describe to us in brief what DROSRITE™ is, and some of its benefits?

Mr. Pascali:  Let’s take an aluminium smelter as an example. As the hot aluminium is formed, it comes in contact with oxygen, and a dross is formed on the surface. This dross acts like a sponge and it effectively absorbs valuable metal. The smelter skims the dross and puts it aside to cool down. Although dross is considered a waste generated by the metallurgical industry, it contains valuable metal that the smelter would like to reclaim. Typically, the dross is sent off site to be processed by a third party who usually uses a salt based recovery system. Salt, if it comes in contact with aluminium, could contaminate the batch and, as such, salt is usually prohibited from being on site and, ergo, the need to ship dross off-site to be processed. These third parties, who use salt, generate salt cakes, which are a hazardous by-product of their dross processing technique.

PyroGenesis' DROSRITE™ system is a salt-free, cost-effective, sustainable process for maximizing metal recovery from dross. PyroGenesis' patented process avoids costly loss of metal while reducing a smelter's carbon footprint and energy consumption, thereby providing an impressive return on investment. With metal manufacturers, such as aluminium, being subjected to increased pressure from regulatory authorities to eliminate landfilling of hazardous salt cakes from traditional recovery operations, combined with tight operating margins, PyroGenesis’ DROSRITE™ system is able to increase metal recovery, without producing any hazardous by-products, while reducing operating costs.

The increased recovery rate alone can save an owner/operator over US$1M/yr using PyroGenesis’ DROSRITE™ system.

AlCircle: Is the PyroGenesis patented DROSRITE™ process limited to processing Aluminium Dross?

Mr. Pascali: Our primary target is currently aluminium dross as this was the market we first introduced the DROSRITE™ process to. However, we have identified zinc and copper smelters as being potential beneficiaries of our proprietary process as well. In fact, our announcement today is important because the last hurdle to demonstrate our DROSRITE™ process for zinc has been eliminated with the receipt of this down payment from an Indian client.

AlCircle:  Could you elaborate?

Mr. Pascali: As I said we are currently targeting aluminium dross and leveraging off our experience and results in that sector. However, we are not oblivious to the opportunities zinc and copper dross present. Our strategy has been to target companies with multiple facilities, and thus multiple needs for aluminium dross processing. Our demonstration system is currently booked in India with paid-for-demonstrations with aluminium smelter clients. One of these clients also has a need to process zinc dross. This particular client has asked us to process their zinc dross. This is an important development as a successful zinc demonstration will provide us with data, and a reference plant, from which we could leverage future sales.

AlCircle:  You are currently targeting the aluminium dross opportunities and now you are addressing the zinc dross need. Could you put into context the size of these markets?

Mr. Pascali: Wth respect to aluminium dross, there are over 3,000,0001 tons of aluminium dross produced every year. We currently offer 500 and 5,000 tonnes per year (tpy) DROSRITE™ systems. The 5,000 tpy system sells for over $1,000,000. Assuming we can only address 40% of the market then it is a $240 million business for us.  

AlCircle:  You are now embracing a tolling strategy. Could you discuss how tolling fits within the strategy of selling systems?

Mr. Pascali: A tolling service arrangement is one in which a smelter provides dross to a third party to process either on or off-site. In our case, PyroGenesis would provide a tolling service using its proprietary DROSRITE™ System to process the dross and recover valuable metals for a fee. The benefits would be shared with the smelter. Our tolling service offerings would be in addition to our selling systems. We have found that, although many smelters like the idea of operating their own systems, there are quite a few who would prefer not to. As such, tolling targets another type of customer: one that doesn’t want to own/process dross on their own. These customers would prefer to have a third party process the dross either off, or on-site. We are positioning ourselves to be that third party.

AlCircle:   Could you elaborate on the difference between on-site and off-site tolling?

Mr. Pascali: The industry standard dross recovery technology, Rotary Salt Furnace (RSF), cannot be operated onsite. As a result, a comprehensive network of large off-site dross processing plants has formed around the world, tolling aluminium dross for multiple primary aluminium smelters at singular, central plants. This has become the global standard practice for aluminium dross processing. DROSRITE™ tolling is an impending catalyst for disruption in this long-established industry of off-site aluminium dross processing. Remember that with DROSRITE™, we can process an aluminium smelter’s dross inside their plant, or on-site, which comes with significant financial benefits and allows us to maximize aluminium recovery rates. With DROSRITE™ tolling, PyroGenesis is offering to build, install, and operate smaller, localized, dross recovery plants inside a primary aluminium smelters plant. Think of it as a dross recovery plant which is owned and staffed by PyroGenesis, operating 24/7 inside the smelter’s premises as a third-party contractor.

Due to the highly profitable nature of operating DROSRITE™, which is further enhanced when operating on-site, we have lower operational costs, recover significantly more aluminium from the dross, and eliminate the logistical issues that smelters currently face in transporting dross hundreds or thousands of kilometres away to off-site tolling plants.

PyroGenesis is holding the key to offering on-site dross tolling services to the primary aluminium industry with DROSRITE™. It is an understatement to say that we are confident that the model of on-site DROSRITE™ tolling will become the primary aluminium industries standardized ‘best practice’ for managing their aluminium dross.

AlCircle:  Are you currently in discussions with any global players in this regard? When do you expect to identify a tolling partner?

Mr. Pascali: We are actively pursuing tolling and as such we are actively pursuing such a relationship. We have targeted no later than Q2 2019, hopefully before Christmas, but then again it could be any day now. We would prefer to team up with one global partner. We are very particular about who we would partner with. It is going to be a long-term relationship, wherein we are managing many facilities together, in far-flung locations, so choosing the right partner is critical. We are not in a rush.