Elysis, the joint venture between Alcoa and Rio Tinto, announced that is has successfully produced the first commercial batch of aluminum without any direct carbon dioxide emissions at the Alcoa Technical Center (ATC) in Pittsburgh, PA — using a breakthrough, carbon-free smelting technology. The first purchase of the aluminum was made by Apple — a major […]
Elysis, the joint venture between Rio Tinto and Alcoa, marked the start of construction on its Research and Development Center in Saguenay, Canada, where the company will develop and commercialize its inert-anode smelting technology — which is said to be able to eliminate all direct greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the aluminum smelting process. Representatives […]
By Andrea Svendsen, Managing Editor. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission culminated in Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on the Moon — a mission decades in the making and which effectively ended the Space Race. Getting to the Moon required the development of new advanced technologies under Project […]
Elysis, a joint venture between aluminum companies Alcoa and Rio Tinto, is constructing a new research and development facility in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region in Québec, which will directly employ more than 25 experts when it is fully operational. “With the development of this research centre, we can proudly root our company in Québec, and in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean in […]
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is providing nearly $1.2 million for four new projects to support American steel and aluminum manufacturers in improving energy efficiency, increasing productivity, and accelerating manufacturing innovation. Among the projects to be funded is Alcoa’s “Large Eddy Simulation to Improve Cell Design,” […]
By Alton Tabereaux, Contributing Editor. The largest waste by-product generated in the Bayer bauxite refining process is bauxite residue, commonly called red mud. An enormous quantity of caustic red mud is generated worldwide every year, posing a very serious and alarming environmental and safety problem. The storage of red mud is a challenge for alumina […]
By Alton Tabereaux, Contributing Editor. Production by Country As prices generally increased throughout 2017, world primary aluminum production increased 3.4% compared with the previous year (Table I). China is the world’s largest producer of electrolytic aluminum, making up over half of the global output. The terminal consumption of electrolytic aluminum in China is mainly concentrated in […]
Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto introduced a revolutionary process that could dramatically improve the carbon footprint of the primary aluminum process. The patent-protected technology, developed by Alcoa, is designed to eliminate all direct greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional aluminum smelting process. “This discovery has been a long-sought goal for the aluminum industry, and this announcement […]
Alcoa Corporation plans to restart three of five potlines at its Warrick Operations aluminum smelter near Evansville, IN, which had been previously closed in March 2016. The remaining two potlines will be classified as curtailed capacity and will remain idle. The three restarted potlines will directly supply the Warrick rolling mill, which serves the North American […]
