Atlanta’s rolled aluminium firm Novelis announced this week the expansion of its partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) on the Novelis Innovation Hub. The partnership will explore new areas in materials and process research with an eye toward increased sustainability and zero-carbon production by mid-century.
Novelis says the partnership will continue building on existing programs in order to ramp up innovation. It will do so by high throughput development methodologies and artificial intelligence. Ultimately the aim of the partnership is to produce a new generation of electric vehicle (EV) batteries with a higher percentage of recycled aluminium.
Philippe Meyer, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Novelis Inc., elaborated upon the aims of the program in a related press release.
“Our collaboration provides an exciting opportunity to accelerate our R&D and to boost the performance of EV batteries (energy density) and recyclability, while lowering costs for automakers and battery manufacturers. But we want to go beyond and partner closely with Georgia Tech to help transform our industry to reach committed objectives toward sustainability.”
Shreyes Melkote, Executive Director of the Novelis Innovation Hub, Georgia Tech, said the partnership with Novelis is rewarding for both institutions.
“Collaboration between academia and industry will help speed the development of transformative solutions to meet the sustainability challenges we face today. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Novelis to address its critical scientific, technological and workforce needs by leveraging the wide-ranging expertise and talent of Georgia Tech faculty and students in sustainable technologies, advanced materials and manufacturing, artificial intelligence, data sciences and robotics.”
Novelis is a subsidiary of Mumbai’s Hindalco Industries Ltd. Based in Atlanta, the firm accounts for almost half of Hindalco’s consolidated revenue. The world’s largest recycler of aluminium, Novelis conducts operations in ten different countries, employs around eleven thousand people, and reported US$11.2 billion in net sales for the most recent fiscal year.