Aluminum Climate Impact
An International Benchmarking of Energy and CO2 Intensities
Authors: Ali Hasanbeigi, Cecilia Springer, Dinah Shi
Aluminum production accounts for 2% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. World aluminum production has more than doubled between 2000 and 2020. Much of this growth in production came from China, which accounted for 57 percent of global aluminum production in 2020. The energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the aluminum industry are likely to continue increasing because the increased demand for aluminum, particularly in developing countries, is outpacing the incremental decreases in energy and CO2 emissions intensity of aluminum production that are happening under the current policy and technology regime.
In this report, we conducted a benchmarking analysis for energy and energy-related CO2 emissions intensity of the aluminum industry among the largest aluminum-producing countries. We focused on the two phases of aluminum production value chain responsible for the vast majority of energy use and associated CO2 emissions: alumina production and the electrolysis process to produce aluminum. Because electricity makes up a large share of the energy used in primary aluminum production, the CO2 emissions associated with aluminum production vary widely based on the fuel mix used for electricity in a given country or region.
Our results show that India, China, and Australia have the highest and Iceland, Norway, and Canada have the lowest energy-related CO2 emissions intensities among the countries/region studied. Among several reasons, this is primarily because of the emissions factors of electricity used to produce aluminum in these countries (mainly in the electrolysis process).
Some key factors that could explain why the aluminum industry’s energy and CO2 emissions intensity values differ among the countries are: the fuel mix used for alumina production, the share of imported vs. domestically produced alumina, the electricity grid CO2 emissions factor, the share and type of captive power used for aluminum production, the level of penetration of energy-efficient technologies, the aluminum product mix in each country, the age of aluminum manufacturing facilities in each country, environmental regulations, cost of energy and raw materials, and the boundary definition for the aluminum industry. These are discussed in the report.
To read the full report and see complete results and analysis of this new study, Download the full report from the link above.
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