Mission
Value-added recovery
Our mission is to offer the aluminum industry a unique, innovative and reliable technology.
OTI’s process is a long-term and permanent solution with complete recovery of fluorinated residues and elimination of the environmental debt.
Given the availability of this process, burial and partial treatment have become an obsolete and unacceptable solution from a social and environmental standpoint.
Our unique technology helps our clients achieve a better environmental performance through a value-added recovery of the products they entrust to us.
The fluorinated residue problem
The construction materials lining the aluminum producing electrolytic cells are chosen for their simultaneous electricity-conducting and thermal insulating properties.
These carbon blocks and refractory bricks become highly contaminated fluorinated waste material at the end of their useful lives.
Over the course of their useful life, these materials absorb a certain quantity of the electrolytic cells process components.
After three to eight years, the materials that make up the electrolytic cell must be removed and replaced.
These products must then be safely stored or treated in order to eliminate their inherent environmental risks (fluorine, cyanide, explosive gas).
The OTI Process
The main advantage of the OTI process is the absence of a solid or liquid residue.
In our process, the crushed fluorinated residues go through a thermal circuit to which various additives are incorporated.
The oxygen-rich environment leads to chemical and physical changes that allow us to eliminate cyanide through oxidation.
The fluorine management is achieved through a tight control of the process, necessary due to its highly-corrosive nature.
The result is ORITEC, an engineered product with highly coveted commercial applications.
The large fluctuations in concentration from different types of fluorinated residues do not impact the OTI process.
The transformation process is continuously monitored to measure and record the environmental performance and, if need be, adjust the operational parameters.
The OTI process at our Bécancour Canada facility is presently operating with all local regulatory approvals and is subject to the strictest environmental and performance standards.