An assessment of environmental impacts and economic benefits of multiple aluminum production methods

The booming development of the aluminum industry has greatly contributed to China's economic development, but it also imposed a burden on the environment. Recent technological development has emerged various methods for aluminum production to improve production efficiency and reduce environmental impacts, while reducing energy intensity in traditional production practices can also lower emissions and remain low production costs. However, which approach that performs better in achieving economic benefits and reducing environ-mental impacts is unclear. This study analyzed six major aluminum production methods based on alumina production process and energy mix. Environmental parameters were derived based on life cycle assessment, and economic cost parameters were formed by building an economic benefits model. This paper then analyzed the potential of achieving economic benefits and environmental impacts reduction for each method using life cycle assessment and principal component analysis. Finally, the greenhouse gas emissions from the aluminum industry in 2030 based on scenario analysis was analyzed. We found that Bayer process-hydropower method performs the best in reducing environmental impacts and achieving economic benefits, while the sinter process-thermal power method performs the worst. The effect of reducing emissions by changing the energy mix (75%) was more significant than that by changing the alumina production process (up to 10%). Furthermore, we used scenario analysis to expand the capacity share of the Bayer process-hydropower method with optimal comprehensive benefit increased by 22.2%, the cost of electricity decreased by 313.77 CNY/t-Al, and the global warming po-tential was reduced by nearly 1/3. Thus, our results reveal the significant benefits of the Chinese government's push to increase the share of clean energy applications in the aluminum industry.

Automated summary

The study analyzed six major aluminum production methods and evaluated their potential for economic benefits and environmental impacts reduction. The results showed that the Bayer process-hydropower method performed the best, while the sinter process-thermal power method performed the worst in achieving both economic benefits and reducing environmental impacts.