Top 10 sustainability drives across the primary aluminium sector in 2022

Sustainability in the primary aluminium industry has grabbed the limelight this year. Both producers and consumers are increasingly making efforts to achieve a sustainable future. While the former are adopting innovative technologies and developing skills to reduce carbon emissions for producing the metal, the latter are making conscious attempts to consume low-carbon primary metal to manufacture greener semi-finished products.

The year 2022 has really been an eventful one in respect to sustainability drives in the primary aluminium sector. Let us pick and learn the top 10 initiatives in this article.

Alba signs MoU with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to reduce its carbon footprint

The year began with Alba’s collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries EMEA Ltd. (MHI EMEA), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, to work on reducing carbon footprint. An MoU was signed, which was the first of its kind with an aluminium producer, to lay the groundwork for a feasibility study on using MHI Group's CO2 capture from flue gas technology to reduce Alba's plant emissions to achieve decarbonisation.

Rusal, Qatalum, Mozal SA win ASI certifications

Also in January 2022, Rusal bagged Aluminium Stewardship Initiative certification for its four additional production sites, of which one was its Kandalaksha aluminium smelter. ASI is a multi-stakeholder initiative to recognize and collaboratively foster responsible production, sourcing and stewardship of aluminium. In the same year, Qatalum has bagged ASI dual certifications for primary aluminium smelting and manufacturing foundry alloys & extrusion ingots at Mesaieed Industrial City, Qatar. Qatalum has an annual production capacity of 660,000 tonnes of primary aluminium, foundry alloy and extrusion ingots, destined for a variety of industries like automotive, construction, engineering, and consumer goods manufacturing. Mozal SA also received ASI Performance Standard Certification with Provisional status for its smelting operation and related port facilities at Maputo.

EGA’s Al Taweelah power plant upgrades gas turbines to reduce GHG emissions

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) successfully collaborated with the American energy technology company GE Power to upgrade four readily installed GE 9F gas turbines at its Al Taweelah power plant, in a bid to contain severity of the greenhouse gas emissions. This would aid the United Arab Emirates in achieving its proposed Net-Zero strategic initiative by 2050.

With a similar amount of fuel utilised, the upgraded facilities would generate 72 megawatts (MW) more power than what they used to produce with those four turbines. As a result, GHG emissions would be lessened by 74,000 tonnes annually to yield the previous power output of 920 MW, which is parallel to the removal of 16,000 cars from the roads of the UAE.

EGA’s Al Taweelah wins ASI Performance Standard Certification

EGA’s Al Taweelah site once again bagged ASI Performance Standard Certification in 2022. The recertification covered EGA’s port, power generation, carbon plant, potlines, casthouse, and waste management including spent pot lining and dross. Al Taweelah’s first ASI Performance Standard Certification dates back to 2019. The recertification is the first for an aluminium smelter in the Middle East with zero non-conformances.

EGA & Ma’aden extend collaboration on developing greener aluminium smelting technology

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and Ma’aden extended collaboration this year on greener aluminium smelting technology, in a bid to achieve more sustainable production. With the extension of the collaboration, the two companies agreed to manage by-products from processes in the aluminium value chain and aluminium recycling.

Vedanta’s sustainability initiatives reduce carbon emissions at smelters by 12% in FY22

Vedanta Aluminium declared some of the company’s initiatives that led to a decrease in carbon emissions intensity at many of their smelters by about 12 per cent in FY2022. Vedanta was the first company in India to launch low carbon ‘green’ aluminium Restora, and in the process, became the nation’s largest consumer of renewable energy. From 2012 to 2021, Vedanta Aluminium cut its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 21per cent while tripping production.

Hydro collaborates with NTNU on achieving decarbonisation through R&Ds

Hydro signed a new strategic collaboration agreement with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) to build up professional collaborations on paving a path to successfully achieve decarbonisation, develop renewable energy production, and practice aluminium recycling. Alloy competence, product development competence, and utilisation of digital tools and technologies with more efficacies are some other areas they would jointly look into.

Speira secures low-carbon EcoLum™ aluminum from Alcoa for producing rolling products

In the consumption front, downstream companies are seeking low-carbon primary aluminium to walk an extra mile towards sustainability. For instance, Speira would haul low-carbon EcoLum™ aluminum from Alcoa to manufacture its rolling products and serve the automotive, packaging, printing, engineering, and building and construction industries with sustainable metal.

Alcoa produces EcoLum at its hydroelectric-powered aluminum smelters. It emits no more than 4.0 tonnes of carbon for every tonne of metal produced, including both direct and indirect emissions (scope 1 and scope 2) across the entire production chain, including bauxite mining and alumina refining. This carbon footprint is three-and-a-half times better than the global average emission.

Mercedes Benz to sport EGA’s CelestiAL solar aluminium

Similarly, Mercedes-Benz parts maker Hammerer Aluminium Industries (HAI) would secure EGA’s CelestiAL solar aluminium. EGA already supplies thousands of tonnes of aluminium to Hammerer Aluminum Industries each year, but now a proportion of this supply would switch to CelestiAL. 

Capral offers low-carbon aluminium LocAl® to Australian manufacturers

Australia's leading provider of aluminium products and associated services, Capral, introduced LocAl®, a lower-carbon primary aluminium option available across Capral's locally manufactured extruded aluminium products. As part of Capral's 2022 commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the company is driving rapid innovation and cultural evolution throughout the organization, particularly within procurement and operations.