Alcoa Received Funding for its Carbon Reduction Technology Pilot Project

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Alcoa Corporation announced that it has received $7.7 million in funding from the Australian government to conduct pilot trials on its new carbon reduction technology for alumina refining.

The company has received $6.4 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and $1.3 million from Western Australia’s Clean Energy Future Fund (CEFF) in support of testing electric calcination- the final stage in the alumina refining process. It must be noted that electric calcination when powered with renewable energy has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions. The application of electric calcinations is still in the research and development phase.

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The pilot project for electric calcination is scheduled to be held in two phases. The initial phase will involve the study, selection, engineering and testing of technologies and will run until the end of 2023. The second phase involves detailed design, construction and pilot testing of the emerging technology at Alcoa’s Pinjarra refinery in Western Australia, which is expected to begin in Q1 2024 and continue into mid-2026.

The grants complement the funding support announced in 2021 by ARENA to support Mechanical Vapour Recompression (MVR) technology.