Boleslav Nemenyonok has received a grant from the Belarusian president. He has been working on transforming used cosmetic tubes and aluminum beverage cans into valuable raw materials for metallurgy. We asked Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Boleslav Nemenyonok, why this project is particularly relevant for Belarus at this very moment.
A new perspective on common waste
A new perspective on common waste
“In 2025, a large waste processing plant with a capacity of up to 600,000 tonnes per year became operational at a landfill near Minsk. Even before its opening, it attracted the interest of scientists and industrialists, as it was expected to significantly increase the chances of recovering metals, plastics, glass, and other materials from recycled waste. I saw new opportunities for extracting aluminum from waste that was previously simply landfilled,” Boleslav Nemenyonok, head of the Department of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Alloy Metallurgy at the Mechanical-Technological Faculty of Belarusian National Technical University, said while defining his scientific objective.
The professor began seeking new approaches and technologies for processing recycled materials containing aluminum, which until now had been buried in the ground. The “gold from trash bin” list features premium packaging like tubes for creams and ointments and also aluminum beverage cans and foil, including that from chocolates and candies.
Aluminum scrap is in high demand both abroad and domestically. Some of the technologies for its use were developed by Boleslav Nemenyonok and his students and are actively applied, for example, at the Metallon company in Osipovichi, which is headed by one of the professor's students. This enterprise processes over 1,000 tonnes of such recycled material, some of which is even imported from the Russian Federation. The company purchases scrap on the exchange and then supplies it to metallurgical plants in Belarus and Russia in the form of aluminum ingots and also 60-100gr granules and pyramids. The latter are particularly in demand in steel production.
Aluminum scrap is in high demand both abroad and domestically. Some of the technologies for its use were developed by Boleslav Nemenyonok and his students and are actively applied, for example, at the Metallon company in Osipovichi, which is headed by one of the professor's students. This enterprise processes over 1,000 tonnes of such recycled material, some of which is even imported from the Russian Federation. The company purchases scrap on the exchange and then supplies it to metallurgical plants in Belarus and Russia in the form of aluminum ingots and also 60-100gr granules and pyramids. The latter are particularly in demand in steel production.
Pyramids for export
We were curious to know what steelmakers need this product for.
“For refining - to cleanse steel of impurities like iron oxides, manganese, and other inclusions,” Boleslav Nemenyonok explains, detailing how it works: “The pyramids are thrown into a ladle of molten steel fresh from the furnace so the aluminum can ‘take’ the oxygen and purify it from impurities.” By the way, this product is now smelted by Beltsvetmet, the country’s largest non-ferrous metal processor. Of course, it primarily produces so-called pig alloys, which are supplied to the Minsk Motor Plant and other factories where they are used to cast necessary parts. However, after remelting aluminum, slag rich in aluminum oxide is produced, which was previously sent to landfills.
Professor Boleslav Nemenyonok believes this slag can be processed to obtain deoxidizing mixtures based on aluminum. Together with his students, he even developed a technology for purifying steel using these aluminum oxide-rich mixtures.
“This technology is no less promising, but works differently,” he says, explaining the details: “In this case, aluminum slag is first loaded into the ladle, followed by the steel on top. During melting in the furnace, the slag floats to the surface, and the steel, ‘bathing’ in the slag, is cleansed of inclusions.” All three technologies (pyramids, granules, slag) are used by our industrial enterprises and by Russian ones. Importers of Belarusian aluminum pyramids and granules include the Volzhsky Pipe Plant, which produces large volumes of steel and steel products. Thus, such aluminum ‘ingots’ have become a significant export product.
Now it is time to refine these technologies using the types of aluminum-containing secondary raw materials that are not currently being processed. This is precisely why they have attracted the attention of Belarusian science, which is keen on fostering real growth in the national economy.
According to the scientist, the list of new types of aluminum-containing waste includes the necks of alcohol bottles with dispensers. These will be separated in the following way: broken glass goes one direction, plastic another, and the crucial aluminum component a third. The broken glass will then be used to produce new containers; the plastic will be processed into granules for items like pipes and treadmills; and the aluminum will be smelted into pyramids and granules. The list of valuable aluminum recyclables extends further, as the professor also plans to develop a technology for extracting aluminum from pharmaceutical pill blisters.
The research by Boleslav Nemenyonok, Head of the Department of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Alloy Metallurgy at the Mechanical-Technological Faculty of Belarusian National Technical University (BNTU), confirms a clear fact: university research is in no way inferior to academic work in terms of practical economic benefit.
Such students belong on the “front lines”!
As a department head at BNTU and Doctor of Technical Sciences, Boleslav Nemenyonok is first and foremost a bearer of unique knowledge, which he generously imparts to his students. He teaches them skills directly applicable to their future profession. It is no coincidence that for 40 years, his department has taught a course titled “Metallurgical Processing of Production and Consumption Waste,” specializing in recovering precious metals from recyclables. Students later apply the knowledge gained in these classrooms and laboratories directly in practice.
Those who successfully complete the two-semester course “Out-of-Furnace Treatment of Cast Alloys,” taught by Boleslav Nemenyonok, do not hear at their factories: “Forget what you learned at university!” Instead, they are immediately dispatched to the “front lines” – the most demanding sectors of domestic industry. These are precisely the specialists the real economy needs.
Tamara MARKINA,
Photos from BelTA and open internet sources,
7 Dnei newspaper.
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