Ushering in the Age of Clean Aluminum

Introducing the Age of Clean Aluminum

Aluminum Technologies has an entirely new way to make primary aluminum from mine to metal, providing the only affordable, clean and energy-saving global solution to zero emissions.

Aluminum is critical for the transition to a low carbon economy.

Aluminum enables the light-weighting of vehicles to improve fuel economy, creates infinitely recyclable packaging, and is a key component for an energy-efficient future.
Aluminum is easily recyclable, requiring less energy which is critical to a circular economy and overall lower carbon footprint.
Aluminum is naturally resistant to rust and corrosion, has a high strength-to-weight ratio, is ductile at low temperatures and is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity

Tragically, aluminum production is outdated and is one of the most harmful industrial processes, accounting for over 3% of the world's direct industrial CO2 emissions. More than steel or cement, a single ton of aluminum generates an average of over 16 tons of CO2 emissions globally. Scopes 2 and 3 emissions contribute significantly since the process requires three distinct geographical locations for mining, refining, and reduction.

The facts are alarming. The primary aluminum industry emits a staggering 1.1 gigatons of greenhouse gases (GHG) in a single year. No amount of clean energy can resolve the nature of the beast.
Aluminum requires more than 900 TWh of electricity.
If primary aluminum were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest consumer.
Aluminum accounts for 7% of the energy used in China.
The future of aluminum needs to use less energy.
The facts are alarming. The primary aluminum industry emits a staggering 1.1 gigatons of greenhouse gases (GHG) in a single year. No amount of clean energy can resolve the nature of the beast.
Along with CO2, primary aluminum production releases millions of tons of powerful perfluorocarbon GHG gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and volatile chemicals.
Refineries leave behind unimaginable amounts of caustic and toxic red mud waste that must be permanently maintained. Little has changed since 1887 because it still takes 4-5 tons of bauxite to produce 2 tons of alumina. The remaining waste forms permanent caustic toxic mud waste endangering local communitie.
Since 2000, nearly every newly built smelter in the world is powered by coal-fired electricity and located in a country with lax environmental standards.
Emerging nations with bauxite reserves want the added jobs from refining. The Bayer process needs to eliminated once and for all.

We didn’t need a crisis to get started back in 2005. We have worked non-stop until we got it right: a simplified, cheaper process with zero emissions, zero toxic waste, and significant energy savings.

Caroline Reily, Co-Founder & CEO

We will save our future with our clean, energy-conserving process of producing primary aluminum metal.

The world no longer needs an antiquated, energy-intensive, and dirty process.

Aluminum no longer has to account for at least 2% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and 3% of direct industrial emissions.

At Aluminum Technologies, we alone have figured out a truly modern solution capable of rapid global adoption: a new, clean primary aluminum process—from mine to metal.

Brilliant Chemical Engineering

The Only Global Solution to Zero

To counter aluminum’s environmental catastrophe, Aluminum Technologies has developed the CCR process to decarbonize primary aluminum production.

CCR produces high purity aluminum metal with no direct GHG emissions while using one-third less electricity.

On a net basis, a CCR plant using the same power mix would be responsible for 70% less GHG emissions than a conventional plant (net negative with renewables).

No Green Premium Required

The CCR process has considerably lower operating and capital costs than the conventional method.

The process consumes one-third less energy, uses non-consumable anodes, and has fewer, smaller, more efficient reduction cells.

There is no anode manufacturing plant, and the footprint of our process - from mine to metal plant is a fraction the size of just a conventional smelter.

Eliminated!

Refinery & Permanent Caustic, Toxic, Radio-Active Red Mud Waste
Carbon Anodes
Perfluorocarbon Emissions

Resourceful

Instead of red mud, we get a valuable building material that will strengthen structural concrete columns, bridge decks, tunnels, and high-rise buildings for generations to come.

The same kind of pozzolanic material that helped make the Pantheon in Rome what is still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome nearly two thousand years ago is the solid byproduct of the CCR process.

Reducing GHG Scope 3 Impacts

CCR technology’s inherent advantages of single-site production, widely available feedstocks, lower electricity consumption, lower operating costs, and lower capital costs make it feasible to build vertically integrated primary aluminum plants globally.

Instead of mining, refining, and smelting aluminum in separate far-flung locations distant from end markets, aluminum can be manufactured on a single site near both raw materials and the ultimate consumers.

Reducing the environmental impact and instability of the primary aluminum value chain is finally achievable.

Demand Dexterity for the Electric Grid

In a world with increasing use of renewable energy, especially from intermittent supplies of solar and wind, the electrical grid of the future requires flexibility from the demand side.

Unfortunately, conventional aluminum smelters require enormous quantities of uninterrupted power and are unable to adjust their loads.

CCR’s unique design can vary its load to help level the grid during times of over/under-production, thus helping facilitate the adoption of renewable energy.