On 19th October 2023, a significant stride was made towards sustainable aluminium production as China’s largest aluminium company, Mingtai Aluminum, commenced testing ALLOW INERTA aluminium, a revolutionary product from RUSAL. This testing marks the first of its kind on Chinese soil, shedding light on the nation’s advancing efforts in reducing industrial carbon emissions.
ALLOW INERTA aluminium boasts the title of being the primary aluminum with the world’s lowest carbon footprint, courtesy of its production through the cutting-edge inert anode technology. This technological marvel is a brainchild of RUSAL, one of the leading players in the aluminium industry.
Viktor Mann, Technical Director of RUSAL, said this is a major step forward for low-carbon aluminium.
“RUSAL has developed and is actively enhance metal production using innovative inert anode technology. ALLOW INERTA is the primary aluminum with the lowest carbon footprint in the world. The use of such metal allows reducing the carbon footprint of final products to the lowest possible in the industry, which gives a competitive advantage over other manufacturers, and helps companies to achieve their sustainable development goals, including decarbonization of the supply chain. For RUSAL, the introduction of this technology makes it possible to completely eliminate emissions of greenhouse gases and polyaromatic hydrocarbons at the electrolysis stage, as well as reduce operating costs by reducing the consumption of anodes.”
Mingtai Aluminum has visions of employing ALLOW INERTA aluminium in crafting foil, which will primarily find its use in the electrical engineering domain, particularly in the electric vehicle battery sector.
YAN Shuaijie, Production Director of Mingtai Group, said the agreement was the result of a great deal of study.
“Mingtai Aluminum constantly analyzes its pool of suppliers, taking into account the carbon footprint of raw materials. We strive to choose those suppliers who meet our decarbonization goals. The use of ALLOW INERTA is the next step towards creating products with minimal environmental impact.”
The crux of this novel technology lies in utilizing anodes made of non-consumable materials such as ceramics or metal alloys during the production of primary aluminium. This methodology drastically slashes greenhouse gas emissions during the electrolysis phase, bringing down carbon dioxide emissions in Categories 1 and 2 (Scope 1&2) to a mere 0.01 metric tons of CO2 per metric ton of aluminum, a stark contrast to the industry’s average of 12.5 metric tons of CO2.
The pilot industrial venture producing ALLOW INERTA aluminium is nestled in the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant (KrAZ), under the ownership of RUSAL. Since the initial metal batches shipped out in 2021, the project has garnered attention from eminent companies across packaging, energy, automotive, and electronics industries, with over 4,100 metric tons of metal churned out during the pilot testing phase of this groundbreaking technology, ALLOW INERTA.
