Aluminium footprint

[Madhvendra Shukla]

Aluminium is extracted from Bauxite but refining raw to finished product entails huge cost.

production of aluminium has two prohibitive costs. One is high consumption of energy and second, high water footprint. Despite these, governments give concessionaire to mining companies in the form of subsidized electricity and open plundering of raw materials.

My question is are we ready to prosper at the huge social and environmental costs?

 

Update:

 

Refining a metric tonnes of alumina requires an average of 250 kilowatt hours
(kwh) of electricity, and smelting a ton of aluminium needs at least 1,300 kwh.
The Wuppertal Institute in Germany estimates that the amount of water
needed to produce one ton of aluminium is no less than 1,378 tonnes (for steel,
a comparable amount is 44 tonnes of water, also a huge quantity). Altogether, a
ton of aluminium produces 4-8 tonnes of toxic red mud as solid waste (from
refineries) and 13.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide (mainly from smelters) while the
overall “ecological rucksack” of “abiotic material” is 85 tonnes.

In simple terms, this means that the negative impact of producing aluminium
is around 85 times its positive value[1]. A recent UK government report
notes that the externality costs of carbon emissions alone stand at 85 dollars
per ton, giving over 1,000 dollars per ton of aluminum.

---

[1] Padel, Felix, and Samarendra Das (2007). "Agya, What Do You Mean
by Development"? Caterpillar and the Mahua Flower: Tremors in India's Mining
Fields. Ed. Rakesh Kalshian. New Delhi: Panos South Asia.

[PINAKI DASGUPTA]

Dear Madhvendra

 

The post started by you is really useful and exciting. However, it will be imperative that we use Indian data to bring out conclusions. On the other hand, if the institute has adopted data released by Indian Aluminium Industry, then it is fine to have such an inference drawn. 

Indian Industry has to depend on many factors which influence its consumption of resources during mining, refining, product manufacturing, logistics and marketing. These need to be included when we talk of so called "footprint"

 

[Madhvendra Shukla]

Engnr Mr Dasgupta,

                              I am unaware of any data from the Indian Aluminium Industry, in fact, i am doubtful about its efforts in releasing the data about different aspects of its production and consumption. 

In India, you might be knowing well, the philosophy of industries that they embody to run their business. First they don't release any data and if so, then it is manipulated or, ctrl+c and ctrl+v. This I have personally experienced. 

 

Second, you are right in reiterating that there are many factors that influence the industrial scenes and they should be included to ascertain the "footprint". I request you to share, if u have, data on Indian Aluminium Industry. Whatever data i had given were from certain sources in India and abroad as well.

It would be appreciable on your part if you substantiate this discussion with your data. Thank you.

[Vinodh Valluri]

Guys, as much as I appreciate all the number crunching, we are missing out vital terms in these equations. Most of the research seems to be just numbers of ‘chemicals’ – that which doesn’t make much sense to the average person. As scientists, policy makers and just plain concerned citizens, we have to do more. Calculating the rupee equivalents of each entity in the equation of footprint, adjusted for inflation, and including mathematical descriptions for socio-environmental variables ssuch as the loss of livelihoods of local citizens in mining regions, monetized ecological values of biodiversity lost due to mining and processing of chemicals in regional forest, and loss of local/rural economic muscle, are key terms that will make the footprint VISIBLE. Which average Indian dude will care to think about 10 tons or fluoride vs. 10 lakh rupees equivalent of damage due to 10 tons of fluoride? :)

I think such practical environmental research will shut down several "development" projects, if not halt or restrict their permissions even more.. You see, when the criminals footprints are visible, you can trace him, punish him, fine him.. if not, you don’t know where to go.. and keep calculating without any real results..