Constellium SE and TARMAC Aerosave, a company dedicated to storage, maintenance and recycling of aicraft and engines (CFM56 & Leap), will explore the development of technologies and processes to recover aluminum from end-of-life aircraft, and reutilize it within the aerospace value chain, while maintaining material properties and performance.

The footprint of aluminum compares very favorably with competing materials used in aircraft production, and recycled aluminum adds to this advantage. Recycled aluminum uses just 5% of the energy required for primary metal production, which results in 95% fewer CO₂ emissions for the aluminum produced for commercial aircraft.

The project will benefit from TARMAC Aerosave’s expertise in end-of-life aircraft dismantling and valorization and Constellium’s know-how in metallurgy, aluminum recycling and alloy design. The goal of this project is to demonstrate that aluminum can reach full circularity in complex aerospace applications.

Dismantling of the aircraft, and re-use of components and materials are already part of our core business. This collaboration with Constellium encourages us to explore the valorization of the end-of-life airframes even further, and to expand our contribution towards the ambitious decarbonation targets set by the commercial aviation sector.

—Sebastien Medan, Facility and EHS Director for TARMAC Aerosave