Alcoa Explores Fresh Technology to Cut Carbon Emissions

The process makes use of electricity from renewable energy to power compressors to turn waste vapour into steam, which would be used to heat refinery process.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Corporation announced a new development project, aimed at significantly reducing carbon emissions in the alumina refining process. This would boost the company’s strong sustainability performance across the aluminum value chain.

Alcoa of Australia has been granted a sum of $8.8 million by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) towards testing the potential use of renewable energy in a process known as Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR). The company is currently involved in technical and commercial studies to adapt MVR technology to aluminum refining. The process makes use of electricity from renewable energy to power compressors to turn waste vapour into steam, which would be used to heat refinery process.

By the end of 2023, Alcoa of Australia plans to install a 3 MW MVR module with renewable energy at the Wagerup refinery in order to test the technology at scale.

Eugenio Azevedo, Alcoa’s Vice President for Continuous Improvement noted that the application of MVR, if proven successful, would be an important step forward in further reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It must be noted that the company is the world’s lowest carbon intensity alumina producer. The technology could reduce an alumina refinery’s carbon footprint by 70%, he added.

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