Given the long lifetime of products that use the material, recycling rates of aluminium cannot keep pace with the growing demand
HIGH DEMAND
Aluminium’s properties make it a popular choice across many manufacturing sectors looking to decarbonise, with demand increasing until mid-century
HIGH CARBON
Production of new aluminium is carbon-intensive because it relies heavily on electricity, which is still mainly generated from fossil fuels in many parts of the world
KEY QUOTE
I can’t imagine that we could succeed with the green transition without aluminium Aluminium offers many advantages for the green transition.
It is extremely light, strong, malleable and dependable. It is perfect for the construction of vital parts of wind turbines, it helps make vehicles lighter—decreasing fuel consumption. It improves the energy performance of buildings and it is currently not possible to produce solar panels without aluminium. The production of aluminium has doubled since 2000 and prices have soared. The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) expects the global demand for aluminium to increase by 80% by 2050. As living standards improve and the world’s population increases, so too does the demand for aluminium. “Aluminium has some unique properties—its lightness-to-strength ratio, durability and shape-ability. When it comes to the transition to a green economy, aluminium is playing an increasingly important role,” says Henrik Wenzel from the Southern University of Denmark (SDU). This is supported by Dorte Juul Jensen, a metals and materials expert from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). “I can’t imagine that we could succeed with the green transition without aluminium. The material is vital in so many green technologies and it makes several products more energy-friendly—for instance, in cars where aluminium replaces steel, and in using beverage cans instead of bottles. In these cases the use of aluminium considerably lowers the energy footprint,” she says. However, producing brand new, or virgin, aluminium is currently among one of the most carbon-intensive materials to process, with carbon emissions 20-times higher than wood and more than five-times higher than steel. A huge amount of electricity is needed to break the oxygen bonds of alumina (aluminium oxide) to produce the metal. In some cases, as much as 25 kilograms of CO2 are emitted per one kilogram of virgin aluminium produced.
RECYCLABILITY POTENTIAL
One of the answers to aluminium’s emissions problem is increasing the amount of recycled material being used. When scrap aluminium is melted it emits just 1-2 kilograms of carbon per kilogram. Recycling uses only 5% of the energy needed to convert the metal back into virgin aluminium and it can be reprocessed almost infinitely. One of the world’s biggest aluminium manufacturers, Norsk Hydro, has produced an aluminium alloy made from a minimum of 75% scrap metals. Its production emits roughly 2.3 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram, according to Norsk Hydro. The recyclability potential is also reflected in the price for aluminium scrap, which, at roughly €1.96/ton, matches the market price for virgin aluminium listed on the London Metal Exchange, excluding the additional costs from the recycling such as transportation. Aluminium is seen as one of the most profitable and sensible materials to recycle. According to the United States’ Aluminium Association, nearly 75% of all aluminium ever produced is still in use. “There has been a global, well-functioning market for aluminium scrap for many years, and there are well-established circular value chains of aluminium around the world, which makes it attractive on a global scale,” says Jannick Schmidt, a life cycle assessments (LCA) expert from Aalborg University. Several big manufacturing companies have taken note of the recyclability potential of aluminium as they look to step up their decarbonisation efforts. As a result, the demand for the much more climate-friendly, recycled aluminium has skyrocketed. A report by US consultancy Technavio estimates that the global aluminium scrap recycling market will grow by 8% between 2021 and 2025, totalling 11.8 million metric tons. This increased focus on using recycled aluminium is putting pressure on the sector, however. “Right now demand for recycled aluminium is so high that markets cannot be satisfied and the price is already overheated. The demand for recycled aluminium will only increase as more companies have more focus on CO2-reductions in their own value chain,” says Jim Hansen of Aluminium Denmark, an industry group. According to Schmidt, the metals sector should look at reducing the carbon footprint of producing virgin aluminium, which has significant emission reduction potential instead of relying on recycled material to meet the growing demand. “We already recycle the majority of all the available aluminium but it is still far from enough to feed the current and growing demand,” says Schmidt.
SUPPLY CHAIN FOCUS
As the climate crisis becomes a high priority on the business agenda, many companies that source aluminium or procure products containing aluminium are beginning to focus more on using recycled material as a step towards fulfilling Scope 3 emissions reduction targets. “This is fueling a growing demand for recycled aluminium,” says Aluminium Denmark’s Hansen. Car manufactures such as Tesla, Toyota and Jaguar have all increased their circular ambitions and formulated specific strategies for recycled metals and specifically for aluminium. Some vehicle models like Jaguar’s Land Rover contain up to 50% recycled aluminium. In April 2020, the organisation European Aluminium, the organisation representing the aluminium industry across Europe, launched a Circular Aluminium Action Plan that aims to “ensure that all end-of-life aluminium products are collected and recycled efficiently in Europe to maximise recycling rates and to keep the material in active use.” One company that is shifting its focus to using recycled aluminium is Danish company Novenco Building & Industry, which produces ventilation products and systems used in data centres, wind turbines and buildings. According to Lars Erik Knaack from the manufacturer, a “shift towards recycled aluminium is an important part of our climate strategy and our efforts in reducing our own footprint,” he says. All of the aluminium in Novenco’s fans is virgin metal. “It has become increasingly important for us to make sure that our products are the most environmentally friendly on the market. The pressure from our customers and regulators for using recycled materials will only increase in the coming years, making it important for us to shift to recycled aluminium,” says Knaack. Novenco is currently looking for a supplier or an aluminium alloy that can deliver recycled aluminium with the same properties as the virgin aluminium they are using today but they are yet to sign a supplier agreement. Knaack points to insufficient supply as a barrier. “There is simply not enough recycled aluminium to meet the demand. It has been difficult to find a supplier for this,” he says. According to SDU’s Wenzel, many products that contain aluminium have a long lifetime—wind turbines can last 25-30 years or more. “It will be many years before much of the aluminium we use today comes back into circulation. But even in a longer perspective, the pool of recycled aluminium will not be enough to fulfil the growing demand,” Wenzel says. “Recycled aluminium will realistically probably not supply much more than 50% of total consumption due to current material loss, growing demand and the delay in the stock of long-lived products,” he adds. This is supported by José Moya, a scientific officer at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. “Even if we recycled 100% of the aluminium in circulation today we would not be able to fulfil the growing demand for aluminium,” says Moya
DECARBONISING PRODUCTION
As recycled aluminium will remain a limited resource, the demand for virgin aluminium will continue to rise. Driven by this growth, business as usual emissions for the sector are forecast to reach 1.6 billion tons of CO2-equivalents by 2050, according to an IAI report. Today, the sector is responsible for an annual 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions, around 2% of the global total. The good news is that 60% of virgin aluminium’s carbon footprint is related to the electricity used in the production process. “It is crucial to examine the carbon footprint of virgin aluminium production because when you produce aluminium with renewables-based electricity, the footprint of aluminium is reduced radically,” says Schmidt. Moya adds that “the future of the aluminium industry is green electrification—this is where the aluminium industry can ensure the biggest carbon reduction.” Some progress has already been made but there is still a long way to go. In Norway, Norsk Hydro currently produces 100% of its aluminium using renewable energy sources—primarily hydropower. Norsk Hydro also has production facilities in Brazil, Canada and Norway which use renewables, but in Qatar and Australia the company’s production still runs on electricity produced mainly by fossil fuels. Jostein Søreide from Norsk Hydro’s climate office, says that the “company is looking to improve the energy mix at all production sites to increase the share of renewable energy.” Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates recently announced it wants to be the world’s first state to produce aluminium using solar energy. As of 2021, around one-third of the global aluminium is produced using decarbonised energy sources. This leaves 45 million tonnes of primary aluminium currently powered by electricity from fossil fuel generation.
LACK OF ALTERNATIVES
Due to the shortage of recycled aluminium and the current carbon footprint of virgin aluminium, researchers and companies have escalated the search for alternative materials that could potentially replace aluminium without much success. “Aluminium has so far been hard to match and we have yet to see alternatives that can offer the same qualities and functions as aluminium,” says Hansen from Aluminium Denmark. Researchers are looking into the use of composite materials comprising polymer and glass- or carbon-fibre—similar to the materials used today in wind turbine blades. “Researchers are looking into composite materials that can replace aluminium in planes, for instance, but there is still a long way to go. I believe that over time, these kinds of materials will replace some of the products where we are currently using aluminium [but] I don’t believe we will be able to phase out aluminium in my lifetime,” says Dorte Juul Jensen. Wenzel also argues that the demand for materials in general and the advantages of aluminium “does not make it realistic to phase out aluminium at all. Consequently it becomes vital that we begin to produce it in the most climate-friendly way,” he says.
TEXT Anna Fenger