“Low Carbon Aluminium has a pivotal role to play in the post Covid world,” Guillaume de Goÿs, Chief Operations Officer of ALVANCE, the Aluminium division of the GFG Alliance

Guillaume de Goÿs, ECAM Lyon (1995) and MBA, IAE Lyon (2015), started his career as a Project Manager for Michelin (1996-2002). During 2002-2006, he joined the aluminium industry in Pechiney/Alcan in Cameroon, followed by Saint-Jean de Maurienne, Rio Tinto, during 2006-2010. He served the Vénissieux factory for Carbone Savoie as a Director during 2010-2014, Aluminium Dunkerque as a Managing Director during 2015-2018, and then Alvance Aluminium Dunkerque during 2018-June 2020. In June 2020, he was appointed as a Chief Operations Officer of ALVANCE, the Aluminium division of the GFG Alliance. He is also the President of Aluminium France, the French association of aluminium producers.

To know his view about Green Aluminium and how ALVANCE is working towards the development of an end-to-end Green Aluminium supply chain, read the interview below.

AlCircle: Could you please share the glimpses of Alvance Aluminium’s journey towards the production of low carbon aluminium?

Guillaume De Goÿs: ALVANCE Aluminium group was launched in January 2020 bringing together GFG’s aluminium assets. ALVANCE aims to champion sustainable production and to develop an end-to-end GREEN ALUMINIUM supply chain, from raw materials through to finished components.  

ALVANCE’s upstream facilities produce some of the lowest carbon primary aluminium in the market. The company’s smelter in Lochaber Scotland (the last remaining smelter in the UK) is powered by integrated hydro-electric facilities. ALVANCE also owns the largest smelter in the EU, at Dunkerque, which also benefits from low carbon electricity, provided by the French National grid. This means that the carbon footprint of the primary aluminium produced at both sites is market leading with direct and indirect carbon emissions well below 4t / t C02 / t of aluminium (scope1 and 2)

The green value chain extends to ALVANCE’s downstream operations, which either benefit from the supply of low carbon aluminium from the business’ smelters or recycle scrap metal to create high value components for the automotive industry as well as other sectors including, construction, pharmaceuticals, and packaging. The business intends to extend its sustainable production methods even further by developing closed loop operations and by exploring other energy reduction and generation opportunities including wind, solar and carbon capture.

AlCircle: Kindly explain Alvance Aluminium’s target plan for extending carbon neutral 2030 (CN30) program.

Guillaume De Goÿs: CN30 is the GFG Alliance initiative to become carbon neutral by 2030. As the Alliance’s global aluminium business, ALVANCE is currently building a roadmap for reaching this ambitious target. Each site will have its own pathway based on ALVANCE overall climate strategy. ALVANCE will focus on carbon emission reduction, therefore working on energy efficiency, process optimisation, recycling and energy procurement.

Currently, there are limitations imposed by the availability of low carbon smelting technology. It is recognised that there are several on-going exciting initiatives, for example, inert anode technology. ALVANCE is exploring how to launch a carbon capture and storage project with some other players in the aluminium industry. The company is also participating in several global initiatives in order to develop industry standards and methodologies for driving sustainability.

AlCircle: Please share your insights on the London Metal Exchange’s plan to trade low carbon aluminium on a separate platform.

Guillaume De Goÿs: ALVANCE is fully supportive of the LME’s evaluation of a Low Carbon Trading platform and has submitted a full response to the consultation document prepared by the LME. It is still uncertain when the tipping point will be reached such that the value recognition of and therefore demand for a Low Carbon trading platform will come.

AlCircle: What are the technological implications Alvance Aluminium has done or planning for the production of low carbon aluminium? What are the financial investments implicated?

Guillaume De Goÿs: ALVANCE is part of the GFG Alliance, which has very large steel assets around the globe, and CN 30 applies as equally to GFG’s “green steel” programme as it does to aluminium. Across the group, our energy teams are building massive solar and wind farms, and we are evaluating how to be able to power our steel and aluminium assets using renewable energy.

On a global scale, ALVANCE recognises that there are technologies that are so expensive to develop and introduce that this can only be done by a collective and global effort within the industry. These technologies include inert anode and carbon capture.

AlCircle: How Alvance Aluminium proceeds for new recycling and casting facility at Fort Willam plant?

Guillaume De Goÿs: ALVANCE is pleased to have recently announced plans to expand aluminium output at Fort William. The new plant will have a capacity of producing 100 kilo tonnes per annum of high-quality billet, as well as utilising metal from the smelter, a high proportion of recycled material will be remelted to produce green billet. It is always ALVANCE’s policy to “add value” along the supply chain and a significant value add opportunity exists with this project. The decision to add billet capacity is underpinned by the predicted strong demand for extrusion and forging billet in the EU.

AlCircle: COVID-19 pandemic has caused socio-economic disruptions in the present time. Do you think low carbon aluminium can support the world to recover the situation?

Guillaume De Goÿs: The Covid19 pandemic has been disruptive but has also opened the world’s eyes to new and sustainable ways of operating. There will be an even greater recognition, post Covid, of the need to conserve our energy and natural resources. Low Carbon Aluminium has a pivotal role to play in the post Covid world.

AlCircle: Do you think low carbon aluminium has fuelled the demand for this lightweight metal in the automobile sector?

Guillaume De Goÿs: The vital role that aluminium can play in light weighting all types of vehicles has already been clearly demonstrated. This is why the weight of Aluminium in the average EU passenger vehicle has grown rapidly over the last 20 years. The electrification of vehicles presents yet another opportunity for fully recyclable aluminium. The next phase in aluminium’s vehicle light weighting journey will be to introduce “green aluminium” this means manufacturing aluminium components that have a very low, less than 4 t / t aluminium carbon footprint. A high recycled content will also be important.