[SMM Aluminum Summit] the road to carbon neutralization-- Enlightenment from aluminum industry

SMM5 March 13: at the 2021 (16th) China International Aluminum processing Summit jointly held by Shanghai Futures Exchange and SMM, Hu Jian, senior vice president of Shanghai Nonferrous net Information Technology Co., Ltd., brought the road of carbon neutralization-a keynote speech from the aluminum industry. Hu Jian introduced the background of global carbon neutralization, the practice of China's aluminum industry and the path of carbon neutralization.

I. the background of global carbon neutralization

Global carbon reduction is imperative, and countries around the world have put forward the goal of carbon neutralization in various forms.

The global aluminum industry emits more than 1.1 billion tons of CO2, mainly concentrated in alumina refining and electrolytic aluminum production. Global electrolytic aluminum energy depends on local resource endowments. Overall, coal power and hydropower account for 85%. In the global electrolytic aluminum production, thermal power is the main producing area in Asia (China), Oceania and Africa, and hydropower in Europe and South America. Other regions also depend on their resource endowments, such as geothermal power in Iceland, nuclear power in France and natural gas power generation in the Middle East.

Energy structure determines carbon emissions, and the overall Asian region has higher aluminum-carbon emissions per unit. Four major carbon trading markets have been formed overseas, and multinational aluminum companies continue to launch their own low-carbon brands.

II. Practice of China's Aluminum Industry

Carbon emission reduction has risen to the national strategic stage since 2020.

In September 2020, the 75 United Nations General Assembly announced that China would strive for carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutralization in 2060. In December 2020, the Central Economic work Conference designated "doing a good job in carbon peak and neutralization" as one of the eight key tasks in 2021.

Practice of Emission reduction in Aluminum Industry

1. Utilization of clean energy

The production capacity of electrolytic aluminum has been transferred from places such as Shandong and Henan, which is mainly thermal power, to places rich in hydropower, such as Yunnan, and some enterprises have tried to use grid electricity instead of self-provided electricity.

two。 Recycling of recycled aluminum

The domestic supply of recycled aluminum is gradually increased, and waste aluminum is imported as a supplement to further optimize the aluminum supply structure and reduce carbon emissions.

3. The consumer side forces aluminum to reduce emissions.

On the consumer side, many multinational large enterprises pay more and more attention to low-carbon aluminum, forcing electrolytic aluminum and export-oriented processing enterprises to produce and use low-carbon aluminum.

"marching into the great southwest", the newly built production capacity of electrolytic aluminum will be transferred to the southwest region rich in hydropower.

In the next three years, according to SMM statistics, China has a total production capacity of nearly 5 million tons of electrolytic aluminum.

Of these, about 80% are concentrated in southwestern regions such as Yunnan and Guangxi, making full use of local rich green energy such as hydropower and wind power, while the production capacity of major provinces that used thermal power, such as Shandong and Henan, will be gradually transferred, and the production capacity of Inner Mongolia may also be transferred to the southwest in the future.

The energy consumption of recycled aluminum is only 5% of that of primary aluminum, and greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by more than 90%.

The production of primary aluminum includes five stages: bauxite mining, alumina production, anode preparation, electrolytic aluminum production and aluminum ingot casting. The proportion of energy consumption in each stage is 1%, 21%, 2%, 74% and 2%, respectively.

The production of recycled aluminum includes three stages: pretreatment, smelting and transportation. The proportion of energy consumption in each stage is 56%, 24% and 20%, respectively.

It is estimated that the energy consumption of 1 ton of recycled aluminum is only 3-5% of that of electrolytic aluminum, and can reduce the treatment of solid waste, waste liquid and waste residue, which has obvious advantages of energy saving and emission reduction.

In the future, with the improvement of purity and mechanical properties of recycled aluminum alloy ingots and the development of casting technology, the application of recycled aluminum will gradually infiltrate into construction, communications, electronics, packaging and other industries. At the same time, the application of recycled aluminum in the automotive industry will continue to expand.

Although China's recycled aluminum industry has developed rapidly in recent years, there is still a gap between China and developed countries as a whole.

The output of recycled aluminum accounts for a high proportion of the total aluminum output in developed countries. The output of recycled aluminum in the United States, Germany and Japan has been larger than that of primary aluminum, and the aluminum consumption in Japan and the United States has been dominated by recycled aluminum products.

In 2020, the output of recycled aluminum in China is nearly 5.3 million tons, accounting for about 15%. In terms of output, China has become the largest country in the production of recycled aluminum, but in terms of structure, there is still a gap between China's recycled aluminum industry and developed countries. Due to the limitation of waste aluminum material and production process, the proportion of deformed aluminum alloy in domestic recycled aluminum products is relatively low, while in the structure of recycled aluminum products in developed countries, deformed aluminum alloy accounts for more than half.

The domestic waste aluminum supply will gradually increase with the approach of the scrapping cycle, and the growth rate of the old waste is much higher than that of the new waste.

The new material mainly comes from smelting and downstream Calendering, the leftover materials and defective products produced by the casting process, and the material head produced in the production process of the terminal industry is also high-quality waste aluminum raw materials. This part of waste aluminum is mainly affected by aluminum consumption in that year, with the slowdown of aluminum consumption growth in recent years, the growth of new aluminum scrap supply slows down obviously and this trend will continue.

III. The path of carbon neutralization and its enlightenment

Revelation 1: aluminum industry

Control the total production capacity, optimize the layout of enterprises, and improve the energy structure.

Advocate primary recycling and strengthen the construction of recycling system

Innovate carbon reduction Technology and promote carbon emissions Market Trading

Revelation 2: electrolytic aluminum enterprises

Increase the proportion of green energy, technological innovation to reduce carbon emissions

Define your own carbon emissions level and actively participate in carbon emissions trading

Enlightenment 3: aluminum processing enterprises

Invest or cooperate deeply with low-carbon aluminum enterprises to start their own low-carbon brand

Although the level of carbon emissions is not high compared with electrolytic aluminum, preparations should be made early to actively participate in carbon rights trading in the future.