Chemical leasing at an aluminium surface-treatment plant

Case study

Context

Buying chemicals weighs on industrial sites’ operating costs well beyond the purchase price itself: storage, use, wastewater treatment and waste disposal all add to the bill.

At its aluminium surface-treatment plant, our client spends more than €350,000 a year on hydrochloric acid (2,500 tonnes) and a degreasing agent, Aluclean 250 (108 tonnes), barely half of their total cost of ownership. Our client wanted to cut this total cost.

Our approach

GATE C recommended chemical leasing, a model where the supplier is paid for the service delivered rather than the volume of product sold, aligning both parties’ interests around reducing consumption. GATE C reviewed every chemical used on site by volume, cost, hazard, suitability for chemical leasing, and economic and environmental benefits. Of 35 chemicals in use, 4 were retained: hydrochloric acid, Aluclean 250, and two others whose benefits still need to be assessed.

For hydrochloric acid and Aluclean 250, GATE C worked with the suppliers and specialist recyclers (Novacid, CMI, Siebec, MacDermid, Italtecno) to assess eight concrete chemical leasing options, each costed: annual savings, investment required and payback period.

Results

8 costed chemical leasing options, on the two chemicals offering the greatest savings potential out of the 35 used on site.

Up to €150,000 in potential annual savings on hydrochloric acid (2,500 tonnes/year), by reselling, regenerating or purifying the spent acid, for a payback of 2 to 3.5 years.

Up to €50,000 in additional annual savings on Aluclean 250, by extending bath lifetime or regenerating the spent sodium hydroxide, for paybacks of 1 to 10 years.

Recovering by-products (aluminium chloride, sodium hydroxide) also cuts the volume of effluent handled by the water treatment plant, where neutralising hydrochloric acid alone accounts for nearly 40% of treatment costs.