MyValueResearch

Aluminium Profile

Executive summary

Aluminium’s contribution to sustainable modern living Aluminium is a young and modern metal. It has only been produced on an industrial scale since 1886 when Hall and Héroult independently discovered how to produce aluminium through electrolysis. In 1900 annual output of aluminium was 1,000 tonnes. By the end of the 20th century the annual production had reached 32 million tonnes comprising 24 million tonnes of primary aluminium and eight million tonnes from recycled metal. This makes aluminium the world’s second most used metal. A world without aluminium has become unimaginable. The business traveller, the tourist and the freight company are dependent on it as the commercial aviation and space industries would never have achieved ‘lift’ off without aluminium. The metal makes a key contribution to fuel efficient engines in cars and trucks, as well as to high speed rail and sea travel. By reducing the vehicle’s weight, it cuts down on fuel consumption and emissions without compromising size or safety. Aluminium facilitates the construction of corrosion resistant and low-maintenance buildings. Around the world, most long distance overhead transmission and distribution lines are made of aluminium. Aluminium in packaging preserves food quality, reduces waste and provides convenience for the users. Aluminium can be rolled into ultra thin foils, which are light, strong and have unique barrier and insulation qualities, it preserves food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products by protecting them from ultraviolet light, odours and bacteria. Aluminium is also the most cost-effective material to recycle.

Packaging of all types, including aluminium, saves about 30% of the world’s food from wastage. Less than an ounce of aluminium sprayed on a polymer forms a thin heat reflecting sheet that can keep a newborn baby warm or save the life of someone on an exposed mountain top. Aluminium has a particular advantage for use in arctic climates, as it retains all its performance properties at low temperatures. The aluminium industry directly employs over a million people worldwide and indirectly generates four times as many jobs in downstream and service industries. International representation As aluminium is a global commodity, the industry has adopted a global approach to sustainable development issues through its international body the International Aluminium Institute (IAI). IAI currently has 21 member companies representing almost every continent. The split of total primary aluminium production between OECD and non-OECD countries is roughly 50:50.Together the member companies produce around 60% of the world’s primary aluminium and a significant proportion of the world’s recycled metal. IAI is involving the Chinese and Russian producers and aims to bring the Institute’s coverage to around 90% of world production. The compact structure of the industry facilitates the gathering of global performance data and the spreading of good practice through benchmarking. As a result, IAI is already monitoring and reporting on a number of widely used sustainable development indicators such as energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and safety performance.

Since 1997, IAI has collected comprehensive benchmarking data on safety performance in the global aluminium industry and information is shared on accidents, near misses and their causes. Such benchmarking data is a driving force for continuous improvement. Many companies have a policy of zero accidents as their target. IAI’s Health Committee plans to collect global statistics on occupational illness and benchmark performance. These statistics will be regularly updated. The aluminium industry has a number of elements in its current environment, health and safety programmes, which would enable it to become a pioneer in the field of global industrial reporting on sustainable development.

Life cycle

Aluminium stands to benefit from the sustainable development approach, because its real impact on the environment can only be judged in terms of a full cradle-to-grave life cycle analysis. It is a sustainable material, whose recyclability and applications justify the high-energy requirement of primary aluminium production.

During an automobile’s construction a kilogram of aluminium can replace two kilograms of conventional heavier materials, thus contributing to the reduction of the vehicle’s weight and therefore its fuel consumption. This means that, over the vehicle’s lifetime, every kilogram of aluminium used saves the equivalent of 20 kilograms of CO2.
Current estimates show that globally there will be, by the year 2020, a 35% increase in CO2 emissions from all vehicles. An increased use of aluminium would reduce this increase down to 28% thus making the transportation sector more sustainable.

Description

Aluminium is a silver to white coloured, highly elastic, ductile element having atomic number 13 in the periodic table. It is a light metal with only 1/3rd density as compared to that of steel. It is as good a conductor of heat and electricity as the metal copper is. Aluminium is known for its feature of being resistant to outside weather, atmospheric gases and liquids. That’s why it is largely used in the cold conditions where it maintains its toughness unlike other metals and gains advantage over the metals carbon-steel and copper etc. Non-toxicity and non-magnetic are some of the other characteristics of this metal.

Aluminium’s abundance in the earth’s crust stands third among other elements. But it is not found in the free state anywhere in the world but in combined form with other materials in the ore form.

Aluminium is a newly discovered metal as compared to the other metals like copper, silver etc as it was found in the 18th and 19th century only. It is the most eco-friendly metal and is also sound technologically and economically. This fact gives aluminium the second place in the list of the largest consumed metals in the world after steel and it is often termed as a versatile metal. It also has unique and numerous properties such as gas resistant, moisture-vapour resistant, grease and oil resistant, corrosion resistant, reflective, lightweight, recyclable etc that makes it stand out when other metals are compared to it. On behalf of all this, it can be said that this metal is irreplaceable.

Aluminium is extracted from the aluminium ore, most commonly bauxite that is found in the areas lying in the tropical and the sub tropical belt on earth. Aluminium constitutes 8% of the earth’s crust. Large deposits of bauxite are located in the continents like North America, South America, Africa, Australia and Asia and small deposits in Europe.

The world production of aluminium is around 28.9 million tons, China being the largest producer followed by Russia, Canada and United States. As already mentioned that aluminium stands second in the largest consumed metals in the world, it is also true that the world consumption level has also risen significantly in the last few years.

History

The metal aluminium hasn’t got a long historical background behind it, as it is relatively a new discovery but the salt of this metal has been used for a long time. In around 5300BC strong pots and bowls were made from the clay consisting large amount of the metal salt in Persia. In around 2000BC, ancient Greeks and Romans made use of the salts of this metal as a dying agent and for the purpose of dressing wounds. At that time the salt was known by the name ‘Alum’. The name of this base salt was changed to ‘Alumine’ by a French chemist and politician named Guyton de Morveau in 1761.

It was in 1808 when a chemist and physicist named Humphry Davy found out the presence of metal base in this salt and named the element Aluminium though he was unsuccessful in extracting the actual element.

After a few years of experimentation, in 1825, a Danish chemist, Hans Christian Oersted was successful in attaining an impure lump of aluminium metal, which was developed further by Friederick Wohler by mixing aluminium chloride with potassium. With time the process of extraction of aluminium was improved and in 1859, with the help of the emperor Napoleon III, first ever aluminium factory was established.

The statue at Piccadilly Circus, London that is known by the name of Eros was one of the first statues that were made by this metal. Till then the process of extracting aluminium was very expensive and it was a highly prized, considered to be a semi precious metal but in 1886, Hall and Heroult invented a new process of extraction and still the improved version of that process is used commercially throughout the world.

Aluminium Production

Aluminium ore, most commonly bauxite, is plentiful and occurs mainly in tropical and sub-tropical areas: Africa, West Indies, South America and Australia. There are also some deposits in Europe. Bauxite is refined into aluminium oxide trihydrate (alumina) and then electrolytically reduced into metallic aluminium. Primary aluminium production facilities are located all over the world, often in areas where there are abundant supplies of inexpensive energy, such as hydro-electric power.Two to three tonnes of bauxite are required to produce one tonne of alumina and two tonnes of alumina are required to produce one tonne of aluminium metal.

Aluminium producing countries

Aluminium is abundantly present in the earth’s crust. The ore of the metal i.e. bauxite generally occurs in the tropical and sub tropical areas of earth and is present in almost all continents except Antarctica with the estimated deposits of 65 billion tons. Production of aluminium from bauxite ore requires three stages i.e. mining of the ore, refining of the ore to produce alumina and finally smelting of alumina into aluminium. To obtain 1 ton of metal, 2 tons of alumina is required and for producing 1 ton of alumina, 2-3 tons of bauxite is required. The only ore other than bauxite that is used for extracting aluminium in some areas is nepheline.

The major bauxite exporting countries are:

C Guinea
C Jamaica
C Surinam
C Australia

LOCATION OF ALUMINIUM SMELTERS

THE MAJOR PRODUCERS OF PRIMARY ALUMINIUM IN THE WORLD

United States of America
C Russia
C Canada
C European Union
C China
C Australia
C Brazil
C Norway
C South Africa
C Venezuela
C Bahrain
C United Arab Emirates
C India
C New Zealand

The global production of aluminium figures around 29 million tons and the above-mentioned countries share more than 90% of the aluminium production. China topped the chart in 2004 producing around 6.1 million tons of metal. Russia with 3.6 million tons, Canada with 2.64 million tons and USA with 2.5 million tons of production followed China. The import – export situation of this metal is dependent upon the demand supply mismatch in the world.

Consumption in the African continent is much lower than the production level and that states that countries in the African continent have a high exporting ability.

Demand

The consumption pattern of aluminium in India is different from the global consumption pattern. The demand for the aluminium industry has been predominantly from the electrical sector. This sector is the largest end user of aluminium in India accounting for 36 % of the total aluminium demand. The transport sector contributes to another 22 % of the total demand while the consumer durable and packaging sectors consume 12 % each. The construction sector consumes 7% of the total aluminium demand. Total domestic consumption was about 0.55mn ton in FY98.

In the power sector aluminium is used in conductors, extrusions, foil wraps and even conductors for overhead transmission. Conductivity of aluminium being greater than that of copper it is preferred to the latter. In terms of price aluminium again comes out as the winner.
Another sector, which consumes aluminium to a great extent. is the automobiles sector. This sector accounts for 22 % of total consumption of aluminium in India.

Aluminium has an advantage over steel due to its higher strength to weight ratio, which helps reduce fuel cost. The metal also has a higher thermal efficiency, which leads to better engine performance.

In India, the use of aluminium in passenger car stands on an average at 20 kg in comparison to 30-35 kg witnessed in other developing countries and 80–100 kg in the US. In India, Maruti Zen has the highest aluminium content amongst all the vehicles. Many more Indian cars could start having aluminium engines. Audi the German car completely made from aluminium.

In the construction sector, aluminium could replace wood with the government discouraging the use of the same. In the packaging sector aluminium foils could replace plastics since they are more convenient apart from being very effective.

The packaging sector accounts for 12 % of the total aluminium consumption. The sector approximately consumes 50,000 ton of aluminium per annum. Packaging sector uses aluminium for manufacture of cans, containers collapsible tube foils and closures. Foils are increasingly being used for packaging food products, tobacco pouches, pharmaceutical strips and inner lining of tetra packs.

Packaging is growing at a faster rate as a result of rising consumerism and growing brand awareness in India. Aluminium is also a substitute for tinplate glass paper and jute. The concept of soft drink in cans has not caught on in the Indian market because of the markets being highly price sensitive. While in urban area’s aluminium cans do find some takers, consumption of cans in rural and semi urban areas is absolutely miniscule. Producers in India are therefore reluctant in setting up a aluminium beverage can unit Aluminium to a large extent is also used in consumer durable. The high thermal efficiency, conductivity, corrosion resistance and low weight of aluminium makes it ideal in the consumer durable sector especially in the manufacture of electric fans air conditioners and coolers where it is used in the form of extruded flat products. Aluminium is also increasingly being used in gas cylinders, cycles, rigid food and non food containers, mines prop and beer and beverage cans

Supply

Production of primary aluminium is done in three stages. It starts with the mining of bauxite, a reddish-brown aluminous earth found in tropical latitudes in Australia, South America, India, the Caribbean and Africa. Bauxite is then refined to produce alumina, which is then smelted to produce aluminium.

To produce one tonne of primary aluminium takes two tonnes of alumina, which in turn takes four tonnes of bauxite. The reduction of aluminium from its oxide, alumina, is very power-intensive, hence why significant parts of world primary aluminium production are located near cheap energy sources, whether it be hydro-electric power in Canada or near the oil and gas fields in the Middle East. Interestingly, when OPEC limited oil exports in the Middle East in the 1970’s, oil producing countries found themselves with surplus oil production capacity which they were not allowed to export. Instead they converted the oil and gas to electricity and produced aluminium which could then be exported. A very clever way to get around the OPEC restrictions.

It is important to understand the huge energy requirement need to make primary aluminium. The Hillside smelter in South Africa produces around 460,000 tpy of aluminium, but to do so takes the of equivalent to about 5% of all the electricity consumed in South Africa. Recycled aluminium plays an important part of the supply chain as aluminium’s use in packaging often has a short life span. To produce aluminium from scrap aluminium costs a fraction of the cost of producing primary aluminium. To produce one tonne of aluminium from scrap consumes only 5% of the amount of electricity that it takes to produce one tonne of primary aluminium.

RECYCLING ALUMINIUM

i. By recycling aluminium cans, it takes only 4% of the energy to recycle them than to produce them from raw materials. Recycling aluminium can saves up to 95% of the energy needed to make a new one.

ii. Recycling 120 aluminium cans saves enough energy to run a 3-bedroom house for one day.

iii. If all of the aluminium cans recycled in the UK were laid end to end they would stretch from Lands End to John O’Groats 160 times!

iv. There would be 12 million fewer dustbins per annum in the UK if all aluminium drinks cans were recycled.