ALUPROF
’ WHAT IS LOW-CARBON ALUMINIUM ?’
BY WOJCIECH BROZYNA - MD OF ALUPROF UK
We are now faced with a target to reduce our global carbon emissions to zero by 2050 , we have just less than 30 years to achieve this . If we can achieve this target , then we should be able to limit our world ’ s rise in temperature to just 2 ° compared to pre-industrial levels . Many scientific minds have been working on how we may achieve this target , but it eventually comes down to countries across the globe who need the determination and available investment to drastically cut carbon emissions . Will we achieve this goal ? Well , there is still much work to be done and technology is rapidly evolving .
Construction is just one of the areas identified by the United Nations , claiming that 11 % of our total carbon emissions are due to our global construction activities . Aluminium , used extensively in external envelope applications , sits alongside other materials and construction activities that are under review . Primary aluminium production ( new aluminium extracted from bauxite ore ) is an electricity-intensive raw material to produce . Chinese prime aluminium production emits 20kg of CO2 per single kg of aluminium production . On average , globally , this drops to 16.7kg of CO2 per kg of aluminium production . A typical low-carbon aluminium however can be produced at around 7kg of CO2 per single kg of aluminium production by using renewable energy and recycled content . It is important to remember that it is the aluminium material itself , the ‘ billet ’ or ‘ logs ’ used for extrusion that is sourced as low-carbon , not the production of the profile itself .
The production of prime aluminium has continued to take advantage of new technology to reduce energy consumption in its manufacture and its carbon emissions since aluminium became a commercially viable material in 1880 through the Hall – Héroult process . Energy consumption has been reducing on average by 1.2 % per year over the last few decades , but in order to achieve a low-carbon aluminium product , much more is needed .
The quantity of recycled aluminium used globally , sometimes known as secondary production , has remained relatively constant at 31-33 % since 2000 , with 34 % used in 2019 the highest share during this period . As aluminium has a high value , collection rates are typically high , in 2019 , collection rates for aluminium were over 95 % for all new scrap ( pre-consumer ) and just over 70 % for all old ( post-consumer ) scrap aluminium . We must continue to increase the collection of post-consumer scrap as it uses much less energy to recycle , just 10 % that of primary aluminium .
There are various producers of Aluminium billet across the globe , all of who supply some low-carbon product , such as , EcoLum from Alcoa offering 4kg of CO2 per single kg of aluminium production , ALLOW from RUSAL offering 4kg of CO2 per single kg of aluminium production , CIRCAL 75R from Hydro offering 2.3kg of CO2 per single kg of aluminium production and our own group company , LowCarbonKety from Grupa Kety offering 2,79kg of CO2 per single kg of aluminium production . All of these low-carbon products are made up of up to 75 % post-consumer scrap , approximately 10 % pre-consumer scrap , together with a low content of primary aluminium and is then produced using renewable energy sources .
The problem we have is that low-carbon aluminium products are costly and in short supply , so why is this ?
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