The Navarre-based cooperative is researching a new process to recover waste sand from the quarries and reintroduce it into its production, with the aim of halving the amount sent to landfill and reducing the use of virgin sand by 40,000 tonnes a year. The project is co-funded by the Government of Navarre.
Tafalla Iron Foundry (TIF) has launched the ‘CIRCUSAND’ R&D project, an initiative aimed at developing a new process for treating and reusing the waste sand generated by its foundry operations. The aim is to transform waste that is currently sent to landfill into a reusable raw material for manufacturing new cores — the sand moulds used to create the internal cavities of engine blocks and cylinder heads — thereby moving towards a more circular, competitive and decarbonised industrial model.
The cooperative, based in Tafalla and specialising in the manufacture of engine blocks and cylinder heads for the automotive and industrial sectors, currently consumes around 70,000 tonnes of virgin silica sand per year as a raw material. After use, the sand becomes waste and is sent to landfill, with the consequent economic, logistical and environmental impact.
Against this backdrop, CIRCUSAND proposes a technological leap forward: to investigate an alternative to conventional sand regeneration processes, which typically require high investment and significant energy consumption. Tafalla Iron Foundry’s proposal seeks a more efficient solution, with a reduction of at least 50 per cent in investment and operating costs (CAPEX and OPEX) compared to current methods.
The project also aims to achieve a reuse rate of at least 50 per cent of the sand from core removal in the manufacture of new cores, whilst maintaining industrial quality standards and without the need to change the resin currently used by the plant in its process.
If the planned objectives are met, Tafalla Iron Foundry estimates that, in the future, the industrial roll-out of the new process will generate significant savings through reduced consumption of virgin raw materials, optimised logistics and lower waste management costs.
From an environmental perspective, the potential impact is also significant. CIRCUSAND expects to reduce the volume of sand sent to landfill by 50 per cent and cut the use of new sand by 40,000 tonnes per year. All of this would enable Tafalla Iron Foundry to reduce its carbon footprint by around 10,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year, thanks both to the reduction in the use of natural resources and the decrease in associated transport.
“This project is driven by a very clear vision: to make circularity a driver of industrial competitiveness. We want to stop viewing sand as an unavoidable waste product and start treating it as a resource that we can recover and reintroduce into the process,” says José Antonio Molina, industrial director at Tafalla Iron Foundry.
The work plan will run from March 2025 to December 2026, lasting 22 months. In the first phase, the cooperative will characterise the physical and chemical properties of the waste in the laboratory and evaluate mechanical, thermal and chemical treatment techniques. Subsequently, the project will scale up to testing with prototypes and production batches.
Industrial validation will include the manufacture of 1,850 cores in batches of 50 units, for different models and customers, and the casting of at least 833 prototype parts (743 commercial vehicle blocks and 90 passenger car blocks) to verify functional integrity and the absence of defects in actual parts.
The project has a budget of 378,676.99 euros and is eligible for a maximum grant of 132,536.94 euros under the Government of Navarre’s call for proposals for R&D projects. The company will finance the remainder from its own funds.
With CIRCUSAND, Tafalla Iron Foundry is reinforcing its commitment to applied innovation and the green transition in a resource-intensive sector. Furthermore, the cooperative highlights the potential for transferring this knowledge to the wider industry, as the process can be replicated in other foundries with similar characteristics.
