AN aluminium recycling and rolling plant in Latchford has been awarded £4.6million by the government.

The new multimillion-pound government contract was awarded to Novelis' Latchford plant, which is off Thelwall Lane.

Among other things, Novelis purchases used aluminium drinks cans - the company liaises with local authorities to advise on how best to dispose of the aluminium receptacles.

Warrington Guardian: The plant recycles and rolls aluminium cansThe plant recycles and rolls aluminium cans (Image: Novelis)

Now, Novelis has been awarded £4.6million by the government to establish hydrogen-burning trials.

This will be as part of the government's £55million Industrial Fuel Switching Competition, as part of the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, and the wider regional HyNet project.

Novelis joined the HyNet project in 2017, and has been conducting tests to determine how feasible it would be for the company to use hydrogen as a substitute for natural gas.

President of Novelis Europe and executive vice president of Novelis Inc., Emilio Braghi, said: "Switching to renewable energy sources is a key initiative to advance on our journey toward carbon-neutral production.

"Besides decarbonising our own facility, this collaboration drives the industrial decarbonisation of the whole north west region in the UK."

The Latchford plant will begin burning hydrogen in 2024 in one of its recycling furnaces.

Plant manager of the Latchford site, Allan Sweeney, said: "We are proud to be one of the pioneers using hydrogen within the aluminium industry and that these trials at Latchford will additionally advance research on the viability of integrating hydrogen power in our recycling operations around the world."

As per PA, replacing natural gas with hydrogen to feed the remelting furnace could reduce CO2eq emissions by up to 90 pre cent compared to using the same amount of natural gas.

Novelis' plant in Warrington is capable of recycling up to 195,000 tonnes of aluminium per year - it is one of the continent's largest aluminium can recycling plants, and is Europe's biggest closed-loop operation for automotive aluminium rolled products.