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INNOVATION
Calcination and reduction of bauxite in fluidized bed reactor
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Market Maturity: Exploring
These are innovations that are actively exploring value creation opportunities. Learn more
Market Creation Potential
This innovation was assessed by the JRC’s Market Creation Potential indicator framework as addressing the needs of existing markets and existing customers. Learn more
Women-led innovation
A woman had a leadership role in developing this innovation in at least one of the Key Innovator organisations listed below.
Location of Key Innovators developing this innovation
Key Innovators
UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDG)
This innovation contributes to the following SDG(s)
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

The UN explains: "Investments in infrastructure – transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology – are crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities in many countries. It has long been recognized that growth in productivity and incomes, and improvements in health and education outcomes require investment in infrastructure."

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 12
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

The UN explains: "Sustainable consumption and production is about promoting resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and a better quality of life for all. Its implementation helps to achieve overall development plans, reduce future economic, environmental and social costs, strengthen economic competitiveness and reduce poverty.

The EU-funded Research Project
This innovation was developed under the Horizon 2020 project ENSUREAL with an end date of 31/03/2022
  • Read more about this project on CORDIS
Description of Project ENSUREAL
Global alumina production capacity is forecast to grow by 30% over the next ten years. Unfortunately, Europe cannot keep the competition and is highly dependent on imported alumina and bauxite. ENSUREAL project’s main objective is to decrease this dependence and characterise all the streams of the alumina industry in order to valorise them and make the European aluminium industry more competitive at a global scale. In order to do so, ENSUREAL addresses the production of alumina of the aluminium production sector, through the introduction of a new technology (Pedersen process) that improves the process’ yield and its energy and environmental performance. Moreover, ENSUREAL’s consortium proposes a new value chain that takes into account all the streams as valorisable products across the aluminium supply chain and introduces the foundry and the agricultural sector. A call for transparency (no-more-black-boxes) and thus a deeply cross-sectorial initiative. More specifically, ENSUREAL brings together the aluminium sector (Aluminium of Greece), the foundry sector (Odlewnie Polskie S.A., Poland), the agricultural sector (Luvena S.A., Poland) and lime producers (CaO Hellas, Belgium), in order to demonstrate the new technologies and approaches proposed. The innovative character of the project is brought by major players in R&D, such as SINTEF, NTUA and NTNU. Outotec and SMS group bring outstanding engineering and process expertise. Furthermore, 3 SMEs will help define and optimise the bauxite scenario in Europe (AdMiRIS), develop ENSUREAL's business case (ITRB) and study the upscaling of the process for future commercial prospects (KON Chem). Last but not least, clustering with other EU initiatives, including other SPIRE projects, will be paid special attention in order to promote a transparent approach of development that show the aluminium producers in Europe all the benefits of implementing the ENSUREAL process once it is demonstrated.

Innnovation Radar's analysis of this innovation is based on data collected on 05/05/2022.
The unique id of this innovation in the European Commission's IT systems is: 107419