ELYSIS progresses toward commercial demonstration at an industrial scale, a step closer to carbon-free aluminium smelting

The carbon-free aluminium smelting for widely usable products varying from smartphones to cars and drink, cans are one step closer with ELYSIS effectively producing aluminium without any direct greenhouse emissions at its Industrial Research and Development Center in Saguenay (QC), Canada.

The production of aluminium at the ELYSIS Industrial Research and Development Center denotes the achievement of a remarkable milestone, using a full industrial design at a size comparable to small smelting cells operating in the industry today.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry of Canada said: “Congratulations to the workers at ELYSIS who have taken another step towards producing carbon-free aluminium. ELYSIS and key local players in the supply chain are making us a global leader in green aluminium. We are proud to support innovation and good jobs here at home – I look forward to full-scale production here in the years to come.”

The work is now enrapt on accelerating the scale-up of the ELYSISTM technology towards the demonstration of even larger commercial-size cells in 2023.

At the end of Rio Tinto’s Alma smelter existing potline, the construction of these prototype cells is now well underway. The smelting cells will operate on an electrical current of 450 kA, which is the commercial scale for many large, modern aluminium smelters. The industrial cells are designed to be used as a ‘drop-in’ replacement to retrofit existing smelters or build new ones and can be scalable to sizes as needed.

Vincent Christ, CEO of ELYSIS said: “Our team has accomplished tremendous work over the past months and years, showing once again the ground-breaking nature of the change we are making to the industry. Results achieved at our Industrial R&D Center demonstrate that we are making serious and sustained progress towards the large-scale commercialization of our technology.”

ELYSIS targets to have its technology available for installation from 2024, as per the present development pathway and the production of larger volumes of carbon-free aluminium approximately two years later.

ELYSIS is commencing detailed planning to scale up the supply chain for the technology’s upcoming commercialization. In 2022, ELYSIS will initiate the design and engineering for a facility that can produce the breakthrough, proprietary materials fundamental to its inert anode, zero-carbon smelting process.

Ben Kahrs, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, Alcoa said: “At Alcoa, we are working to transform the aluminium industry, and the ELYSIS technology is an important component in our overall strategy to advance sustainably. We are very proud to see Alcoa’s early work to develop the inert anode technology moves forward with the ELYSIS joint venture, which is working to revolutionize the aluminium industry. Today’s announcement takes these processes another step closer to full commercialization with packages available for sale in 2024 and then industrial applications to follow.”

In 2018, Alcoa and Rio Tinto launched the ELYSIS joint venture. The inert anode technology now being scaled up by ELYSIS builds on a process first developed at the Alcoa Technical Center outside of Pittsburgh. The ELYSIS carbon-free smelting technology, which emits oxygen, also incorporates the latest in next-generation smelting cell design from Rio Tinto. The combination of these two innovations has led ELYSIS to develop an industrial breakthrough technology enabling sustainability and performance.

Aluminium produced during the ELYSIS research and development stage has already been used by Apple, a non-equity investor in the technology, ABInBev for Michelob Ultra cans and Audi for the wheels on its eTron GT.

Ivan Vella, Chief Executive, Rio Tinto Aluminium: “This is a significant step in reinventing the aluminium smelting process which is well over 100 years old. It will help address the paradox that aluminium is – a material that is critical for the decarbonisation of the world, but also currently one that is very carbon-intensive to produce. Rio Tinto looks forward to bringing this breakthrough zero-carbon technology to the market and supplying our customers with the green aluminium they are expecting.”