# For a scrap-based aluminium remelter, which fuel counts for the European Union (EU) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): melting, de-coating the scrap, holding and dross?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/cbam-secondary-aluminium-decoating-and-dross-fuel-boundary

For a secondary aluminium plant, the Commission's guide puts inside the boundary fuel for melting and holding furnaces, drying and pre-heating scrap, de-coating and de-oiling, burning the residues, casting, and treating skimmings and slag. Scrap itself is a raw material with zero embedded emissions, and there are no perfluorocarbons.

## The kitchen picture

A remelter is like a kitchen that takes old pots and pans and melts them into new bars. The oven fuel counts. So does the fuel used to clean the old pots first, such as burning off paint and oil. The pots themselves arrive with no carbon charge attached.

CBAM is the EU's charge on the carbon built into imported goods. The plant's own figure follows the fuel burnt at the plant, plus any bought precursor.

## Fuel steps the guide puts inside

- Drying and pre-heating raw material, and fuel used in melting furnaces.
- Pre-treatment of scrap such as de-coating and de-oiling, and combustion of the related residues.
- Fuel needed to cast ingots, billets or slabs.
- Associated activities such as treatment of skimmings and slag recovery.
- Carbon dioxide from flue gas treatment, from soda ash or limestone if relevant.
- The guide lists these steps: sorting and pre-treatment, furnace charging, melting and holding furnaces, and the casting plant including metal treatment, alloying and homogenisation.

## What adds nothing

- Scrap, whether pre-consumer or post-consumer, is treated as a raw material with zero embedded emissions.
- There are no perfluorocarbon (PFC) emissions from the secondary route.
- Electricity is not counted for aluminium goods, which are on the direct-emissions-only list.
- Bought unwrought aluminium used in the process is a precursor and brings its own figure.
- The guide says typical fuels are natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or fuel oil.

## Dross done somewhere else

The guide names the treatment of skimmings and slag recovery inside the boundary. Our reading: it does not discuss a dross job done by another company off site, so ask your verifier before you leave that fuel out. Our page on dross recovery explains the process.

## A remelter that casts 9,000 tonnes of ingot a year (example)

- Natural gas: 1,200 tonnes for melting and holding, 150 for the de-coating oven, 60 for dross treatment = 1,410 tonnes
- Energy: 1,410 x 48 gigajoules per tonne = 67,680 gigajoules = 67.68 terajoules
- Carbon dioxide: 67.68 x 56.1 tonnes per terajoule = about 3,797 tonnes
- Per tonne of ingot: 3,797 / 9,000 = about 0.422 tonnes
- Scrap charged: zero. Electricity: not counted

Gas quantities and output are example numbers. The 48 gigajoules per tonne and 56.1 tonnes per terajoule are the natural gas values in the guide's own worked example. If you burn LPG or furnace oil, use your own tested values.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records. Metering which oven burned which fuel is custom, on request. Senseible builds the verifier-ready file and checks every figure in-house; an accredited verifier Senseible partners with signs it off, or the client sends it to their own.

- [Build your aluminium CBAM file](https://senseible.earth/cbam-suite)
- [Dross recovery emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/aluminium-dross-recovery-emissions)
- [Fuel per tonne of scrap melting](https://senseible.earth/answers/aluminium-scrap-melting-fuel-per-tonne)
- [Primary or secondary billet for an extruder](https://senseible.earth/answers/aluminium-extruder-primary-or-secondary-billet-cbam)
- [Verifier checks at an aluminium plant](https://senseible.earth/answers/what-cbam-verifier-checks-aluminium-plant-india)

Sources: [European Commission, CBAM Guidance No. 5e, aluminium (14 August 2026)](https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/document/download/590e983b-c937-41ea-bb9f-810c29e70e1e_en?filename=Guidance%20No.%205e%20-%20Sector-specific%20guidance%20document%20on%20aluminium.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Check section 2.2.3.2 of the guide against Annex I, point 3.17.3 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2547 before you file. The guide says it is not legally binding.