Technology Development, Energy Consumption, Greenhouse Gases Emission and Environmental Pollution in Aluminium Industries

Aluminium is the world’s second most-used metal after steel and the aluminium production industry is the largest, in volume of metal produced, in non-ferrous metal industry. In this study, results of the material flows (country and global scales) related to the production and use of aluminium and energy consumption in 1980 to 2012 were separately analysed. Also, overview of the current status of the aluminium industry, including the processes of bauxite mining, alumina refining and smelting, and the key economic and environmental issues were explained. Development in the aluminium producing industry, consumption and environmental implications, as well as identifying the alternative and future technologies that will impact the industry were discussed. Finally, some suggestions for the reduction of energy consumption in different stages were made. These analyses implied that world’s primary aluminium (made from bauxite) production has increased from 19.51 million tonnes metric in 1990 to 47.78 million tonnes metric in the year 2012. The production of world alumina also raised from 41.4 to 100.5 million tonnes metric at the same time, whereas secondary aluminium (made from fabrication and post-consumer scrap) produced another 16 million tonnes in 2012. Primary aluminium production is associated with serious environmental problems including high energy demand, substantial GHG emissions and solid waste generation. So that, it consumes about 1% of the globally produced electric energy and about 7% of the total energy consumed by industry worldwide and it is responsible for the 2.5% of the world’s CO2-equivalent emissions. The findings of the study revealed that due to the use of recent technologies, the average of electrical power consumption in the primary aluminium production declined per tonne from 16.9 MWh in 1990 to 14.6 MWh in 2012. The average of specific energy consumption for alumina refining was around 13.534 and 14.5 GJ per tonne in 2012 and 2000 respectively.