Rio Tinto's Alma aluminium smelter in Canada is to be the first operation to install and demonstrate the zero-carbon Elysis technology in an industrial setting, the Elysis joint venture has said.
The inert anode technology will be installed at the end of an existing potline at a commercial size of 450 kiloamperes (kA), which is a common capacity for modern, full-scale smelters. The 450kA cells at Alma will be supported by investment of C$20 million ($16 million) from the government of Quebec.
Elysis, led by Alcoa and Rio Tinto with additional investment from the governments of Canada and Quebec, is working to commercialize a new technology to produce aluminium which eliminates all direct greenhouse gases from the traditional smelting process and instead produces oxygen.
The move comes as companies step up efforts to meet climate change targets, with the aluminium supply chain increasingly looking to reduce its emissions because of government-mandated programs and regulations across the world.
At the same...