ALUMINIUM
By:
1. Abstract
The economic and environmental reasons for recycling and reusing materials are vital to be able to effectively and efficiently meet the 21st centurys population demands. Aluminium is the third most abundant element on the earths crust. Today the use of aluminium is widely spread in countless industries. As complex a life cycle assessment could be, this paper describes the material cycle of the aluminium content of a car, which is estimated at around 70kg, from the early stages of extraction until the re-melting or recycling of the material.
Table of Contents
1. Abstract ........................................................ 1 2. Introduction and Background ...................... 2 2.1 Life Cycle Assessment ............................. 2 2.2 History of Aluminium ............................. 3 2.3 Physical and chemical properties ........... 5 2.4 Mining and Production worldwide......... 5 2.5 Applications in the car ............................ 7 3. Material Flow processes .............................. 8 3.1 Mining and production processes .......... 8 3.2 Use and Life span.................................. 10 3.3 Disposal and Recycling ......................... 11 3.4 Material Flow analysis .......................... 13 4. Discussion ................................................... 14 4.1 Additional environmental aspects ....... 14 4.2 Conclusion ............................................ 16 Bibliography ................................................... 17
List of figures
FIGURE 1: LIFE CYCLE STAGES [5] ........................................... 3 FIGURE 2: PHASES OF AN LCA [5] .......................................... 3 FIGURE 3: WORLD PRIMARY ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION [7] ......... 4 FIGURE 6: MINING AND PRODUCTION WORLDWIDE [11] ............. 6 FIGURE 5: PRIMARY PRODUCTION WORLDWIDE [27] .................. 6 FIGURE 4: MAIN END-USE MARKETS FOR ALUMINIUM PRODUCTS IN EUROPE [7] .............................................................. 6 FIGURE 7: ALUMINIUM SHARE OVER TIME AS PERCENTAGE OF CURB WEIGHT [12] ............................................................ 7 FIGURE 8: BAUXITE MINING [13] ........................................... 8 FIGURE 9: ALUMINA TO ALUMINIUM, HALL-HROULT PROCESS [13] ............................................................................. 9 FIGURE 10: ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION STEPS [18] ................... 10 FIGURE 11: ALUMINIUM USE AND LIFESPAN [3] ....................... 10 FIGURE 12: END OF LIFE VEHICLE ALUMINIUM RECYCLING [3]...... 11 FIGURE 13: ALUMINIUM FLOW CHART [3] .............................. 12 FIGURE 14: MATERIAL FLOW DIAGRAM, OWN CALCULATION BASED ON [4] AND [9] ....................................................... 13 FIGURE 15: CO2 EMISSION RELATED TO ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION WORLDWIDE [19] .................................................... 15 FIGURE 16: ENERGY USE OF PRODUCTION PROCESSES AND THEORETICAL MINIMUM [18] ..................................... 16
A Life cycle assessments consist of four components, which are systematic and phased. First comes the goal definition and scoping, which describes the product and its process and activity. Then comes the inventory analysis, which identifies and quantifies the physical use of energy, water and materials and the environmental releases as well, such as air emissions and waste and water discharges. After that comes the impact assessment. This third phase assesses the environmental effects of the outcome of the inventory analysis. The fourth and last step is the interpretation. Here, an evaluation is done for the output results. The following figure is a diagram showing the whole process summarized. [5]
The benefits of conducting a life cycle assessment are plenty. It helps decision makers to be able to identify and select the weak points of a product or process and use the outcome information to upgrade their businesses. By looking at the whole process, one can prevent or calculate the environmental impact transferred through any changes made (e.g., from air emissions to wastewater effluent). [5] In this paper the focus is only on the materials flow and quantity and it does not represent a comprehensive life cycle assessment, as such an analysis requires a lot of time and resources.
discovered a hard, reddish, clay-like material containing 52 percent aluminium oxide near the village of Les Baux in southern France. After the place of discovery he named it bauxite, todays most common ore of aluminium. [7] In 1827 Friedrich Wohler in Germany described a process for producing aluminium as a powder by reacting potassium with anhydrous aluminium chloride. Later, in 1845, he established many of the metal's properties, including its specific gravity (density). It was this discovery of its exceptional lightness that boosted scientific research and paved the way for commercial production. However, at that time the metals price still exceeds that of gold and platinum, bringing rulers such as Napoleon to serve their guests with plates made from aluminium rather than gold. Despite dropping by 90 percent in price over the following 10 years due to improved production processes, it was not until 1886 that considerable production begins to rise. In this year the two unknown young scientists, Paul Louis Toussaint Hroult (France) and Charles Martin Hall (USA) simultaneously invent a new electrolytic process, the Hall-Hroult process, which is the basis for all aluminium production today. Following that, the first aluminium companies were founded in France, Switzerland and the USA in 1888. In 1889 Austrian scientist Karl Josef Bayer invented the Bayer Process for the large-scale production of alumina from bauxite, and thereby establishing the metals worldwide and multifarious use. [7] The real rise however only began after the Second World War. The aluminium industry expanded rapidly during the war to meet the need for military aircraft. This expanded production capacity made aluminium available for new and renewed markets, including automobiles. The use of aluminium in Automotive Industry began nevertheless earlier. Aluminium crankcases were used in the end of the nineteenth century in some car models. Even car with a full aluminium body was first developed in 1899. What may have been the first AIV (aluminium-intensive vehicle) was designed and built in 1923. In 1948, Land Rover started using aluminium outer skin sheets. By the time the aluminium content in cars increased rapidly, so that in 2005 the average volume of aluminium used in passenger cars was already 131kg and this trend keeps rising. [8]
How will this development affect the security of supply? Are the global reserves sufficient to meet the growing demand? As aluminium is among the most abundant elements of the Earths crust, the fear of supply shortage seems unreasonable. Estimations speak of Bauxite resources of about 55 to 75 billion tons, located in Africa (33%), Oceania (24%), South America and the Caribbean (22%), Asia (15%), and elsewhere (6%). Reserves (considering also current economic and technical feasibility) are estimated at about 28mio tons, which would be sufficient to maintain supplies for at least the next two hundred years. [11]
Around 85 percent of all Bauxite mined worldwide goes towards production of aluminium metal. The remaining 15 percent is used in chemical and refractory products, as well as different aluminium compounds. The top markets for the aluminium industry include transportation, packaging, building, and construction. Transportation continues to be the largest market, accounting for 36 percent of the total aluminium output (see figure 4). [7] The global Bauxite output in 2010 was 211,000 tons [11]. The majority of bauxite mining is done in the southern part of the world, largely in developing countries, whereas primary production is more focused in Europe and North America (figure 6).
3.1 Mining and production processes Bauxite As mentioned before, aluminium is the third most abundant metal on the earths crust. It is
mostly mined from what is called bauxite, which is the reddish ore found right after usually a half meter topsoil layer, ranging from three to five meters deep. Since it is found so close to the ground it is extracted by a process called open-cast strip mining. [13]By doing this, small red pebbles called pisolites are mined. Their diameter has an average of about five millimeter. This process requires a lot of earth moving with heavy equipment, [13] which translates directly into environmental problems such as erosion and creating dust. Erosion is a major issue because most of the mining happens near rainforests. [3] How this is solved is mainly by returning the residues to their places and replanting the mined fields. As for the dust creation during the mining process, usually water is used on the floor, as well as covers for the transportation vehicles. [13]
Alumina Through a process called the Bayer, which is a chemical refining process, bauxite is
transformed into alumina or aluminium oxide (Al2O3). This is the feedstock for the aluminium smelting progression. To reduce the transportation costs usually it is done close to the mines. In this process caustic soda is used at high temperatures to haul out the alumina, which then is left to settle and crystallize. The residues of caustic soda is then recycled and reused for efficiency. Extracted alumina ranges from 31 to 59 percent by weight and has an average of 41 percent. Normally, every five tons of bauxite yield two tons of alumina or one ton of aluminium. Some of the alumina is used not for aluminium production, but for other uses such as pharmaceutical, medical or other chemical industries. [13]
Hall-Hroult Process As for the rest of the alumina, it is converted to aluminium using the HallHroult electrolytic process. This is done by dissolving the alumina into molten cryolites (sodium aluminium fluoride) inside a large carbon container. Through the lowering of a carbon anode into a cryolite and the container lining acting as a cathode, a direct current passes through the electrolyte. The current has the characteristics of high ampere and low voltage. In this process the oxygen atoms are removed from the alumina through the electrolytic process, causing a reaction with the carbon producing carbon dioxide. The molten aluminium is left at the bottom of the container, which is regularly removed to a holding furnace to allow the repetition of the process. The aluminium is then cast into ingots, rolling slabs or extrusion billets, which are shipped to be processed into their final products. [13]
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The following figure is an illustrative diagram, showing the steps of both new and recycled aluminium production.
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Putting an exact lifetime for the aluminium content in cars is very difficult. To give an example, German cars have an average lifespan within Germany of about 12 years, which is if they get dismantled after this use period. Often the case is different, where the cars are being shipped to less developed countries, where the cars are being used for a much longer period of time. However, aluminium scrap is of very high value compared to other materials as it doesnt lose any of its properties by recycling it over and over again. Therefore the incentive for recycling it exists, along with the much lower energy requirements than from mining it. About 90 to 95 percent of the aluminium in the cars goes back into the loop. [3]
Collection The first step to be able to recycle aluminium is the collection. The industry tries to
harvest as much as possible from the scrap metal available. However, with the help of the society and authorities, the amount of aluminium collected could increase further. The amount of aluminium scrap collected in Europe is 96 percent of the total aluminium used. This high percentage is also due to the high tech and efficient collection methods available and used. For vehicles, some aluminium parts are first removed during the dismantling of the vehicle. Then, the car body is fed into a shredder. This results in having a mix of a lot of materials. The first separation process is removing the ferrous metals with a magnet, leaving plastics, glass, textiles, rubber and non-ferrous metals. In order to separate the aluminium a lot of processes are used. These include the sink-float process, as well as an electromagnetic separation. Other process uses laser and x-rays technology to identify the type of alloys. [3] Following diagram shows the process of extracting the aluminium content in a car.
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Treatment The quality of the scrap is monitored to be able to reduce the adherent materials as
much as possible. The type of alloys is also of high importance, and therefore there is a separation by type as well. [3] Because of the types of melted materials and joints there are small aluminium losses during the separation of about 2 to 10 percent. [3]
Residues There are also some residues from each process of the aluminium production and
recycling phases. These remain are also reused, recycled or put back into the cycle. The aluminium salt slag, which is about 400 kilograms per ton of aluminium, is processed to reusable salt. The aluminium oxide is also used for various industries, such as for the production of cement. The filter dust, of about 25 kg/ton, as well as the skimmings (25 kg/ton) and furnace lining (2 kg/ton) are recycled within the aluminium recycling industry. [3] The following diagram shows the overall aluminium material processes.
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Figure 14: material flow diagram, own calculation based on [4] and [9]
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4. Discussion
In this section the aluminium cycle presented in the previous section is discussed and evaluated. In addition, other important aspects that contribute to the overall environmental footprint of the metal are addressed.
4.1 Additional environmental aspects Red mud As described in the previous chapter, by far the largest fraction of solid waste is the
insoluble residue of the bauxite digestion (Bayer process). The resulting red mud is highly caustic and presents one of the aluminium industry's most important disposal problems. It is a mixture of solid and metallic oxide-bearing compounds originally present in the parent mineral, bauxite, and of compounds formed or introduced during the Bayer cycle. The sludge consists to 30 to 60 percent of oxidized iron, causing its red color. Other components include silica, unleashed residual aluminium, titanium oxide, as well as different organic compounds. It is a highly saline and alkaline mixture with a pH value ranging from 10 to 13 and high ionic strength. [14] Red mud cannot be disposed of easily. In most countries where red mud is produced it is pumped into open holding ponds, where it is stored for several years until the material is settled and can be recovered for future refining or be neutralized. This presents a problem as it takes up land area that can neither be built on nor farmed, even when dry. Another common practice of disposal is piping the mud into the deep sea, causing pollution of surface and underground water and contributing significantly to the overall cost of alumina production. [15]. Other reported environmental impacts of bauxite mining and processing include deforestation, increased erosion and disturbance of hydrology and natural habitats. A typical plant produces 0.3 to 2.5 tons of red mud with each ton of alumina, depending strongly on the type of bauxite ore. [16] Considering the model car, about 100kg of bauxite residue would be generated from 70kg of aluminium content. It is estimated that around 70 million tons of red mud are produced worldwide every year [17]. Rapidly increasing aluminium production accentuates the rigorousness of the problem. Currently, scientific research is searching for new ways of treatment or industrial application of the material. Possible fields include metallurgical uses (iron and steel production, titania, alumina and alkali, minor constituents recovery), production of building materials (constructional brick, light weight aggregates, bricks roofing and flooring tiles, cements etc), catalysis, ceramics (pottery, sanitary ware, special tiles and glasses, glazes, ferrites) and other miscellaneous direct uses (in waste water treatment, as a filler, as a fertilizer, etc). However, practical application of those methods still remains on a very small scale as technical and economic feasibility are still lagging behind. [14]
Energy consumption A major concern in terms of ecological footprint is the high energy intensity
of Aluminium production. Electricity costs typically constitute about one-third of the total production costs. The worldwide average specific energy consumption is approximately 15kWh per kilogram of aluminium produced [18]. In the U.S, the aluminium industry consumes about 5 percent of the total electricity produced, in Australia with over 25000GWh even almost 15percent [19].
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The high consumption is primarily related to the smelting process, as it is based on a constant electric current that is needed to reduce alumina to aluminium metal by electrolysis (Hall-Hroult Process). It requires 46 percent of the total energy consumed during all production stages. Smelters are therefore mostly located where electric power is both plentiful and inexpensive, such as the United Arab Emirates with excess natural gas supplies and Iceland and Norway with energy generated from renewable sources. In addition to consuming a large amount of electricity, this process directly produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and under certain conditions other highly potent greenhouse gases. Total greenhouse gas emissions can only be estimated considering the sources of energy, which vary widely on a global scale (figure 15). In Australia, one of the largest producers of alumina, electricity consumption is mostly covered by coal-fired power plants, causing about 2.5 times as much greenhouse gas per ton of aluminium as the world average. Internationally, however, coal accounts only for about 30 percent, whereas hydropower is the predominant energy source for aluminium production. [19]
However, the potential to reduce the energy consumption is significant. The theoretical minimum energy required is three times lower than the energy consumed in current practice (figure 16). Current research states that technological improvements could for example reduce energy use for smelting by more than 30 percent [18]. Furthermore, it must be pointed out that the recycling process requires only 5 percent compared to the energy used for primary aluminium production. Therefore, increasing the collection and recycling rates may considerably contribute to reduce the overall energy consumption in the aluminium industry. In order evaluate the absolute energy balance of a material; the energy use during its entire life cycle needs to be considered. As aluminium is light compared to many other alternative materials, it may save a lot of energy during its life span. Although a holistic assessment of the total energy / carbon footprint was not feasible in the scope of this work, the following chapter will provide a conclusion of the aspects covered in this work, and give some recommendations for the future development.
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Figure 16: energy use of production processes and theoretical minimum [18]
4.2 Conclusion
This paper has highlighted the main features of the aluminium life cycle in relation to ecological and sustainable developments. It aims to summarize and give a brief understanding about the metal, in relation to the other studied materials, in an attempt to understand the urban material cycles and their impacts in a holistic manner, rather than just analyzing separate parts of it. Aluminum is seen today in almost every product in our lives and is related to what we eat, drink, consume and travel with. When one kilogram of aluminum is recycled 8 kg of Bauxite, 4 kg of chemical products and 14 kilowatt-hours of electricity are saved. With the aluminiums characteristics of not degrading and indefinite recycling capabilities, wasting it should be avoided as it creates unnecessary impact on the environment, the public health and increases production demands, as well as having an energy intensive production process [20]. Therefore, more effort into the recycling methodologies should be put more in focus, as well as paying more attention from the public to reduce and eliminate planned obsolescence, which means planning or designing a product with a limited useful life span, so it will become obsolete or nonfunctional after a certain period of time. One could argue that if the market finds better ways of recycling aluminum, certain environmental problems such as red mud and excessive energy use could be dramatically reduced when the market finds its equilibrium state. Hence, improvement is vital and only possible with the increase of public awareness of the realities behind aluminum consumption. This is being done best by the unequivocal method of making life cycle assessments, which takes all aspects into consideration, including environmental, economical, health and social. This method shows that for example replacing iron alloys with aluminum ones have a positive effect on the fossil fuels reduction through having light weight goods. By doing these analyses, regional and international regulations, as well as activists and the public could affect the current industries (production and recycling) with collective efforts, and change them into more sustainable operations.
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