THE PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY
Today it is impossible to imagine our life without aluminium. The light and soft white metal, with a frosted silver tint is virtually everywhere. But there was a time when aluminium was more precious than gold. Contrary to popular belief, aluminium mines do not exist, and only certain minerals and rocks containing aluminium are suitable for industrial production. The latter only started at the end of the 19th century when ways to produce aluminium through electrolysis were discovered, and only in the period between the two World Wars, the extent of its potential was more widely recognised.
Increasingly employed by the transport and construction sectors, aluminium production boomed following World War II. Whilst only 8,000 tonnes of aluminium were produced in 1900, a century later, its production volume had reached over 40 million tonnes. Aluminium’s outstanding properties explain why, in terms of application in various industries, it is nowadays second only to iron. Aluminium is forgeable and malleable. Its oxide film makes it resistant to corrosion and means the life span of aluminium goods is very long. In addition, it has a high electrical conductivity, is nontoxic and is easily reprocessed. These properties go some way to explaining aluminium’s importance in the world economy. The aluminium industry is the largest non-ferrous metal industry in the world economy. It is highly competitive and characterized
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GLOBAL ISSUES
by high concentration. The six largest producers of aluminium account for more than 40% of the global primary aluminium output. This is mostly due to high entry barriers relating to the specifics of the aluminium production process, which includes bauxite mining, alumina refining and production of aluminium itself. It is no wonder that industry leaders are large, vertically integrated companies, managing all stages of aluminium production. More than that, aluminium production is very energy-intensive; therefore access to cheap energy resources is key to becoming an industry leader. Currently, there are two primary technologies to produce aluminium: Soederberg and prebake. Soederberg uses a continuously created anode made by addition of ‘pitch’ to the top of the anode. The lost heat from the smelting operation is used to bake
the pitch into the carbon form, required for reaction with alumina. Prebake technology is named after its anodes, which are baked in large gas-fired ovens at high temperature before being lowered by various heavy industrial lifting systems into the electrolytic solution. In both technologies, the anode, attached to a very large electrical bus, is slowly used by the process. Prebake technology tends to be more efficient, but is more labor intensive. Prebake is becoming preferred in the industry because of the various pollutant emissions related to the creation of the anode from liquid pitch. As already mentioned, aluminium production process is very powerintensive. Hydropower has always been and continues to be the most important source of electrical energy for the aluminium smelting process. More than 55% of the
world’s primary aluminium is produced using hydro-electric power which is clean, CO2 free and renewable. From an environmental standpoint, different energy sources have different impacts, releasing the same amount of energy. For instance, the carbon dioxide emissions impact of producing 1 MWh from coal has a different environmental (CO2 emissions) impact to that of hydroelectric power production. The high share of hydropower in the electricity mix and the reductions of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions have resulted in a decrease from 12 to 10 tonnes of CO2 equivalents for every tonne of aluminium produced since 2000. The improvement of the aluminium production process, aimed at increasing production efficiency and lessening the environmental impact, is a key challenge for the industry. RUSAL, the world’s
largest aluminium producer, is using a three-pronged approach to address this : modernisation of the existing facilities (e.g the Krasnoyarsk aluminium smelter), equipping greenfield projects with the best available technologies and equipment (e.g the smelters in Khakassia, Taishet and Boguchany) and, finally, a gradual replacement of obsolete capacities with the modern ones. Within this approach, RUSAL is developing new advanced aluminium production technologies, reduction prebake technologies, such as RA300, RA-400 and RA-500, is improving Soederberg technology (“Clean Soederberg”), and finally, developing a revolutionary inert anode technology, which will significantly reduce energy consumption and eliminate emissions producing environmentally safe products – aluminium and oxygen.
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Meanwhile, the future of the aluminium industry remains bright. The industry itself has solid growth potential, supported by booming emerging economies. Consumption and demand in emerging economies are expected to more than double in the coming years on par to the level of consumption in developed countries. Today, China alone consumes over 40% of current global aluminium output. It is estimated that this figure will exceed 50% by 2025 due to continued urbanization and industrialization of the country. At the moment, in China, per capita consumption of primary aluminum is 10kg, whereas consumption in the developed countries consumption is 15-30kg, so the potential for growth is tremendous. Another reason to be confident in this light weight metal’s prospects, is that aluminium is part of the solution for a
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sustainable future. Approximately 75% of all aluminium produced is still in productive use, having been through countless loops of its lifecycle. Recycling saves almost 95% of the energy needed to produce aluminum from its original source, bauxite ore. Aluminium is a recyclable material, bringing substantial energy savings and green gas reduction. The aluminium industry has taken a leading role by establishing a uniform global monitoring approach to energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. It is now almost 200 years since aluminium’s first appearance. This metal has changed many aspects of the world in which we live in. The success of this lightweight metal has earned it the name of “metal of the future.” Starting out as a rival to silver and platinum, aluminium gradually took on a new role and
won over ground from iron, steel and plastic. While consumption of aluminium continues to grow, it looks like the future belongs to the thirteenth element. UC RUSAL 13/1, Nikoloyamskaya str., Moscow, 109240, Russia Phone: +7 (495) 720-51-70 +7 (495) 720-51-71 Fax: +7 (495) 745-70-46 www.rusal.com