During the year 2021 it has continued in Silicatos de Malpica S.L. (SIMAL) with the support of the Basque Government and the European Union, through the HAZITEK Programme, an aid programme to support business R&D. Project FLOREAL (New FLOculants with REcycled fillers from the aluminium industry for the paper and water treatment sector).
The general objective of the project was to obtain raw materials within aluminium chemistry that could be an alternative to some of the existing consumption in the paper and water treatment sectors. At present and for use in the chemical sector, the main alternative to the raw materials under study are costly processes of natural or synthetic origin (Bayer method), so the project represents a first initiative for the commercialisation and incorporation of a production process of important aluminium derivatives of recycled origin.
The FLOREAL project has developed in the timeframe as planned. However, although it has been possible to obtain an aluminium-concentrated solid for obtaining recycled trihydrate alumina as an alternative to the extraction mineral ATH, its processability, both in basic and acid mediums, is limited by the presence of salts that give rise to different problems in the processing of the solid obtained.
In any case, we would like to thank the Basque Government for the support shown during these 2 years of the project, and we hope to count on their support in the successive initiatives associated with this or other projects that may take place.
PROJECT NO. ZL-2021/00186 – FLOREAL proiektua
Action co-financed by the Basque Government and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund 2014-2020 (ERDF).