
Environmental protection at Aurubis Italia, Avellino site
Aurubis Italia, the only copper rod producer in southern Italy, is located in Avellino. In 2018, a total of around 100 employees produced about 170,000 t of rod and about 3,000 t of wire for special applications.
Aurubis Italia has been under an IPPC permit since 2009 (IPPC refers to the EU Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control). The high efficiency of Aurubis Italia’s production lines enables nearly 100 % of the raw materials used to be processed into products. Modern cleaning and filter facilities keep off-gas and wastewater to a minimum. Wastewater is continuously monitored before entering the sewer system thanks to an automatic water sampling system. A service started for cleaning roads and yards at the Avellino site with a street sweeper, which has reduced the metal load in the water discharge. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the rolling mill were significantly reduced by lowering the amount of isopropyl alcohol. The VOCs are collected and treated with a scrubber system. The fugitive emissions in the smelting area were considerably lowered due to a vacuum system and hoods on the launders and holding furnace. Dust emissions and POPs from the shaft furnace have been drastically reduced. Many small energy-saving initiatives have been implemented during the last few years thanks to continuous improvements in the production process. Aurubis Italia successfully achieved the EMAS registration in July 2019.
The main focuses of Aurubis Italia Srl are to:
- Continuously improve environmental performance, in particular energy and material consumption
- Demonstrate compliance with environmental regulations with maximum transparency
- Publicly provide its environmental strategy, environmental program, environmental management system, and key environmental performance data
- Openly engage with interested parties (employees, local authorities, suppliers, etc.)
Environmental Protection Avellino - facts & figures

Dust [g/t wire rod production]
In 2011, Aurubis Italia installed a pilot plant first and then installed an inert dosing system to reduce dust and POPs.

Metal load [g/t wire rod production]
Aurubis Italia has increased the efficiency of its wastewater treatment plant.

Production waste [t]
Environmental measures that have been implemented
Description of measure:
-
Replaced the air heat exchanger with a higher-performance one
Date of completion:
- August 2018
Description of measure:
- Replaced the old rainwater lifting pump station with a more efficient one
Date of completion:
- February 2018
Description of measure:
- Installed a specific treatment for casting machine cooling water to reduce surfactants
Date of completion:
- September 2019
Description of measure:
- Improved wastewater treatment system
Date of completion:
- May 2017
Description of measure:
- EMAS registration successfully achieved: IT-001951 on July 29, 2019
Date of completion:
- July 2019
Current important environmental targets and measures
Description of measure:
- Reducing isopropanol consumption, TVOCs ducted, and fugitive emissions by revamping emulsion filtration system
Date:
- September 2020
Status:
- Second step completed, third step ongoing
Date:
- September 2021
Status:
-
Replaced with higher-performance models:
- Air heat exchanger (completed)
- Heat recovery system for off-gas from shaft furnace (ongoing)
- Baghouse filter (ongoing)
Date:
- September 2021
Status:
- Ongoing
Date:
- September 2022
Status:
- Ongoing
- feasibility study
Description of measure:
-
IPPC permit renewal according to the new NFM-BREF (Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for the Non-Ferrous Metals Industries)
Date:
- December 2019
Status:
- Application submission ongoing
Download (PDF)
-
Um die heruntergeladene Komponente zu sehen den QR code scannen
EMAS Registration certificate (Italian)
PDF
1 MB
-
Um die heruntergeladene Komponente zu sehen den QR code scannen
Environmental Statement 2021 Aurubis Italia (Italian)
PDF
4 MB
-
Um die heruntergeladene Komponente zu sehen den QR code scannen
ISO 14001 : 2015
PDF
1 MB
-
Um die heruntergeladene Komponente zu sehen den QR code scannen
ISO 14001 : 2015 (Italian)
PDF
1 MB
-
Um die heruntergeladene Komponente zu sehen den QR code scannen
ISO 9001 : 2015
PDF
1 MB
-
Um die heruntergeladene Komponente zu sehen den QR code scannen
ISO 45001 : 2018 (Italian)
PDF
2 MB
Gianpaolo Antonacci
Maintenance Engineering & RSPP Manager
Phone | +39 3487069545 |