Energy Consumption and the CO2 footprint in aluminium

production

Abdullah Al Ashraf

6/7/2014
Abstract:

Aluminium is one of the most popular metals in today’s industrialized world. It was discovered by Hans Christian Oersted at
1825 in Denmark. Origin of name came from the Latin word "alumen" meaning "alum". It is silvery in color with atomic number 13
and weight 26.98 g/mol [1]. The abundance of aluminium in earth’s crust and the easy recycling possibility made this metal very
famous in today’s world. The application of it is almost everywhere starting from cold drinks can to aero plane. Here, a brief
description of aluminium production and the calculation of consumed energy for aluminium production and CO2 footprint in 2013 are
mentioned. Future perspective of the research on this field will be on the reduction of production energy and recycling to create a
sustainable society.

Introduction:

Aluminum was considered as one of the rare and semiprecious metals during the late nineteenth century [2]. Although it is one

of the third most abundant element and the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust, it was more precious than gold during the reign

of French Emperor Napoleon III. The Hall- Heroult process, which invented in 1880 were proposed to dissolve aluminum oxide

(alumina) in molten cryolite as electrolyte and a powerful DC current passed through it that resulted to leave the molten aluminum at

the bottom of the bath and the oxygen which derives from aluminum reacts with carbon anode to form carbon dioxide[3]. Until the

discovery of Bayer process in 1887, the production of aluminum was durable and expensive. Bayer discovered that, aluminum

hydroxide can be easily filtered and washed from alkaline solution because of its crystalline structure and the rest of the solids can also
separate from the liquor by dissolving aluminum from bauxite. The aluminum hydroxide is then dried and calcined to give aluminum.

His discovery tumbled the cost of aluminum about 80% by 1890. Both Hall- Heroult and Bayer’s process are used industrially to

produce aluminum in today’s world. The Hall- Heroult process is considered as a type of Aluminum smelting process and can be

written as:

2 Al2O3 (dissolved) + 3C (s) = 4Al (l) + 3 CO2 (g)

Aluminum production relies on the usage of raw materials which are alumina, carbon, cryolite, aluminum fluoride and the electric

power. The alumina is extracted from the aluminus ore called bauxite which contains 40-60 mass% aluminas with the presence of

smaller amounts of silica, titania and iron oxide. Bayer process is used to extract alumina from bauxite which involves the dissolving

of bauxite ore in NaOH that removes the impurities from the solution. In this process, bauxite is added at high temperature, separation

of red mud occurs at intermediate temperature and the precipitation of aluminum occurs at low temperature. The formed alumina is

attained as fine white materials. Produced alumina is used at 2-8% with the molten cryolite (Na3AlF6) in the electrolyte[3]. Particular

additives like aluminum fluoride (AlF3), calcium fluoride (CaF2) used with cryolite-alumina mixtures to lower the melting point which

also improves the current efficiency and reduce the evaporation losses. Most often, prebaked technology is used to build the anode. In

this technology 65% petroleum coke, 20% butts and 15% coal tar pitch mixture molded into blocks and baked in separate anode

baking furnace at about 1120 °C. Theoretically, to produce 1 kg of alumina: 4 kg of bauxite, 1.93 kg aluminum oxide, 0.415 kg

carbon, 20 g aluminum fluoride, 2 g cryolite and 13400 kWh electrical energy is used[3].
Calculation of energy consumption of aluminium production in 2013[4]:

PERIO AFRI ASIA GCC CHI CHINA NORTH SOUTH WEST EAST & OCEAN ROW EST.
D CA (EX NA ESTIMAT AMERIC AMERI EURO CENTRA IA UN-
CHIN ED UN- A CA PE L REPORTE
A) REPORTE EUROPE D
D
DEC 20 156 206 336 1,932 200 399 157 296 316 179 65
13
NOV 20 150 194 310 1,954 200 388 152 294 308 175 65
13
OCT 20 156 202 326 1,951 200 401 158 302 316 180 65
13
SEPT 2 150 196 326 1,858 200 394 153 293 314 174 65
013
AUG 20 156 201 333 1,863 200 416 163 303 333 179 65
13
JUL 20 156 200 334 1,839 200 425 164 302 342 178 65
13
JUN 20 151 196 327 1,843 200 413 155 291 335 175 65
13
MAY 2 153 208 334 1,766 200 428 165 298 350 176 65
013
APR 20 145 207 320 1,707 200 416 162 290 341 171 65
13
MAR 2 147 217 328 1,734 200 428 169 298 357 178 65
013
FEB 20 138 196 293 1,729 200 385 154 266 323 161 65
13
JAN 20 152 216 319 1,760 200 425 168 292 360 179 65
13
Total 1810 2439 3886 21936 2400 4918 1920 3525 3995 2105 780

Total global production in 2013 = 49714 metric tons

 Produced by
1810 2439 3886 21936 2400 4918 1920 3525 3995 2105 780
countries in 2013
Energy
needed(kWh) 1796.03 2420.18 3856.01 21766.75 2381.48 4880.05 1905.18 3497.80 3964.17 2088.75 773.98

Cell voltage=4.2 Energy= 4200 kW Total energy for primary production 4.5x104 kWh
Recycled aluminium in 2013 50 x106 ton

Energy needed 50kA per ton = 210 kW/ton Total energy for recycled aluminium production: 2.48x106 kWh

Total energy for primary and recycled aluminum production = 2.52x106 kWh

Carbon footprint [5]:

Carbon footprint = 500 g/ kWh

So, the carbon footprint for the production of primary aluminum in 2013 = 4.5x104 kWh x 500 g = 22500000 g/kWh or 22500 kg/kWh

Conclusion:

Recycling of aluminum is very efficient and requires only 5% of the energy compared with producing new metal. One of the

important benefits of aluminum recycling is that, there is no difference between primary and recycled metal. So, by giving more

concentration on recycling aluminium, we can reduce the amount of energy loss and CO 2 footprint. Furthermore, by providing

cogeneration facility alumina refinery, we can use the waste heat from the generator to produce steam for the refining process. In

addition, by using the spare heat during production to melt recycles metal, which is then blended with the new metal we can save

energy as well as successfully use the extra heat. Carbothermal process of producing aluminum might be the alternate of electrolysis

which need less energy in the production.

References:
[1] http://www.webelements.com/aluminium/

[2]http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/why-aluminum-considered-precious-metal

[3] http://www.balcoindia.com/operation/pdf/Aluminium-Production-Process.pdf

[4] http://www.world-aluminium.org/statistics/#data

[5] Lecture notes.