Cradle to gate: life cycle impact of primary aluminium production

The International Aluminium Institute's (IAI) aim was to publish life cycle inventory (LCI) data for use by life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioners through professional databases. The need to provide robust data stems from the increasing application of LCA as a tool for making material and design choices and the importance for representative, up-to-date information to underpin such studies. In addition to this, the institute aimed to evaluate the significance of potential environmental impacts, based on the LCI results, against a defined set of impact categories which can be tracked over time. Key environmental data collected as part of the IAI's long-running industry surveys provided the foundation for the life cycle inventory. In order to evaluate the environmental impact, direct input and output data for primary aluminium production were supplemented with background data for indirect processes available in GaBi version 6 (PE International, 2013b). A cradle-to-gate model was constructed with two distinct datasets, global (GLO) and global minus China (rest of world (RoW)). A partial life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was completed using the models, and the following six CML (2001-Nov 2010) midpoint environmental impact categories were reported: acidification potential, depletion of fossil energy resources, eutrophication potential, global warming potential, ozone depletion potential and photo-oxidant creation potential. Water scarcity footprint of primary aluminium (Buxmann et al. in this issue) was also included. The results indicated that the largest greenhouse gas contributions were attributed to the alumina refining and electrolysis unit processes in both datasets, with electricity and thermal energy, being the major contributing factors to these higher values. The energy intensive nature of primary aluminium production means energy supply can significantly influence the overall environmental impact. Electricity production was found to contribute between 25 % and 80 % to all impact category indicator results, with higher values in the global dataset, a result of the inclusion of Chinese energy data and the increased share of coal-based electricity consumption that it represents. The global aluminium industry remains dedicated to transparent reporting of its environmental impacts and ensuring that up-to-date, representative LCI data is available. Development of suitable methodologies for new indicators will be required to ensure that the industry continues to report accurately all its relevant impacts. Additionally, with the increased importance of Chinese aluminium production, inclusion of foreground data from Chinese production would further enhance the dataset from which the global impacts of aluminium production are assessed from cradle to gate.