How to Smelt Aluminum Without Coal, for a Greener Industry

A metal giant is investing millions in its aluminum smelters located in the Quebec region of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Canada, to make its production greener by trading coal for hydroelectricity.

“We’ve got hydropower, and we’ve got the lowest carbon aluminum smelting technology in the world,” says Ivan Vella, chief executive of aluminum at Rio Tinto. “You put those pieces together and we think that’s something we should invest in.”

Indeed, the AP60 technology the mining group uses emits less than 2 tons of greenhouse gases for every ton of aluminum produced, compared with 10 to 14 tons of emission as per the industry average. The 16 new smelting cells added to Saguenay’s AP60 plant will come into production in 2023 with hydropower replacing coal as the energy source to smelt aluminum. As the world’s demand for aluminum could grow some 3.3% per year – the material is used in construction, for electric vehicles, and solar panels – this Canadian natural resource will likely continue to attract investments as a new and more sustainable economy is developing.