“Low carbon aluminium is produced with clean and renewable energy. Aluminium production being energy-intensive, a lot of electricity is needed and the energy source is the critical factor”, Denis Mazerolle, President, Nature Alu

Denis Mazerolle graduated from Laval University (Canada) in Metallurgy Engineering and had a 32 years career at Alcan and later at Rio Tinto. He had the opportunity to work in the technical, management, and commercial domains. In 2016 he founded NATURE ALU with other partners, a new company producing high-purity aluminium in Saguenay (Canada).

AlCircle: Being the leading high-purity aluminium producer with a low carbon footprint, how do you think the uses of these products can contribute to reducing global emissions?

Mr Denis Mazerolle: High-purity aluminium represents only a tiny portion of aluminium global production (less than 0,3%). Although it is not crucial in terms of volume, the type of products produced with high–purity aluminium is often required in energy storage and the global energy transition.

AlCircle: Please brief us about 4N+ aluminium and Nature Alu’s plans to produce 5N aluminium (99.999%).

Mr Denis Mazerolle: Nature Alu is a new aluminium high-purity producer; we are buying our raw material from the smelters located in Quebec, taking advantage that those smelters are power supplied by hydropower with no carbon footprint.  We purify the aluminium at different grades, P0101, 3N8, 4N and up to 4N5. For the moment, we are not producing the 5N. The demand will dictate our future effort toward this level of purity.

AlCircle: Do you think low carbon/ green aluminium will play a major role in the transition to a low carbon economy?

Mr Dennis Mazerolle: The low carbon aluminium will participate in the weight reduction in transportation (cars, trucks, trains, planes). It will also reduce the product carbon footprint thanks to endless recyclability. The complete life cycle of this material and its overall carbon footprint is the primary advantage of this material towards the global energy transition.

AlCircle: How do you think green aluminium can help North America recover from COVID 19 crisis?

Mr Denis Mazerolle: Hard to say, this industry is currently healthy, the smelters never stopped during the pandemic, and the demand is strong. The global economic recovery can count on the green aluminium because I believe the economic recovery programs will focus on the green economy.

AlCircle: How downstream and end-user sectors are driving the demand for low carbon aluminium?

Mr Denis Mazerolle: We see more and more demand for full product traceability and product carbon footprint. People are more aware of their impact when they buy a product. This awareness will increase in the next coming years.

AlCircle: What modern technologies do you think are necessary for manufacturing low carbon aluminium?

Mr Denis Mazerolle: Low carbon aluminium is produced with clean and renewable energy. Aluminium production being energy-intensive, a lot of electricity is needed and the energy source is the critical factor. For example, hydropower is zero CO2 emission as compared with electricity generated by gas or coal. The electrolysis process itself generates CO2 emissions and new breakthrough technology is about to come with the inert anodes, allowing zero CO2 generation during electrolysis. It’s promising!

AlCircle: Do you think low carbon footprint products will build a circular economy in a post-Covid world?

Mr Denis Mazerolle: Yes, a circular economy and the fight against climate change will become the next global challenge in the post-Covid world.