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.

[Chandra Kishore]

Madhvendra, Please do share your resaerch work and statistics to support it. I know you have done a lot of work on it.

[Biplob Chatterjee]

Madhavendra, I would be looking for more data... I would be keen to know about the substitutes which can work better than aluminium... we know that bauxite smelting is energy intensive. However, aluminium also replaces steel in many industries ... say automobiles... thereby making the automobiles more energy friendly... would be good to know the energy budget of aluminium and its downstream utilities, if you have looked at this aspect!

[GOPI KANTA GHOSH]

We need this metal...we need to balance it...

[Madhvendra Shukla]

Mr Chatterjee,

Undoubtedly, aluminium has been instrumental in reducing the use of steel proportionately. Its tremendous lightness fits the bill. But unquestionably its use for strategic purposes have opened the gateway for open plundering of its raw material that is bauxite ore. The environmental costs and social costs which are incurred due to bauxite mining are multitudinous. Look first at its genesis later its finished form.

The formation of Aluminium Cartel by world's leading mining barons shows how strategically this metal is. Almost all combat machines like war planes to incendiary bombs uses this precious metal.

Pursuing development blindly is no development, it is like celebrating our own death. If you want further reading on Aluminium then do read Out of this Earth by Felix Padel and Samarendra Das. It may substantiate your thoughts.

[Madhvendra Shukla]

Dear Gopi Kanta,

                       What do you propose to balance it? Please let me know.

[Biplob Chatterjee]

Madhavendra, "pursuing development blindly" - isn't this a terribly subjective phrase! We still have atleast a billion people on earth yet to come out of poverty and billions more who have to reach atleast an acceptable standard of living which you and I have... can you and I deny them the rights to develop!

On the same note, your phrase "open plundering for strategic use" is unfortunately, sounding just a rhetoric ... please let us know if aluminium cartel (actually, though there are big producers, there is hardly a cartel for aluminium) pushes states in US and Europe to buy the metal and make combat aircrafts only as their biggest use of the metal...

The energy budget of aluminium production only would be just a one sided story Madhavendra... you have to measure this against the savings in carbon emission which metal aluminium impacts by replacing a heavy metal like iron in automotive / transport industry

We should not have any doubts about the development goals for mankind..... development is inevitable... I hope we all use our knowledge and skills in making sure that the development process we adopt is sustainable. My solution would not be to banish the use of aluminium yet, unless an appropriate substitute is found / invented... however, I would continue thinking of pursuing governments to consider carbon emissions while pricing aluminium, which would enforce the Alcoas and Alcans of the world to use its R and D budget to make aluminium mining, refining and smelting more environmentally friendly

[Madhvendra Shukla]

Mr Chatterjee,

                    If u wish to develop people by sacrificing other peoples' like tribals then that development, according to me, is genocide. Almost all the mineral reserves are found in the best forested regions in the world, u perhaps will support this fact. And inhabited by tribals.

Minerals should be mined, they are precursor in the process of development. "pursuing development blindly" - if this a terribly subjective phrase!, by resonating this what do you mean? U wish to uplift billions of India from penury by just the word development or a development acceptable to masses. I don't think people need a prosperity which is stained with the blood of their own people.

 

With due respect let me again reiterate that aluminium catel  has come into existence virtually. It is now documented also. The role of World Bank, DFID is instrumental in creating such cartel. It will start just sounding rhetoric to u if take pain to find the reality.

 

Aluminium is a strategic metal and eyelid of first world. It has significant uses and has reduced the steel and iron use proportionately.

 

I wish to pursue this metal for development plz don't misunderstood me. Undoubtedly, development is inevitable and India is desperate for but it must not be done at the cost of people and nature.  Your last line is worthy of endorsing, what u r thinking is what i have been pushing.

 It was nice to write back to u. Good luck. Take care.

[Vinodh Valluri]

Interesting discussion. I understand electricity usage is not trivial in melting solid metals into liquids, and other chemical processed. The carbon footprint and resource use would be staggering, often several times more than wood or clay. The key question for me to consider is that proponents of Aluminum hail it as a cheap metal, strong yet easily cut/ bent. Magnalium alloy has made vehicle use and air transit more plausible. BUT. How will this metal liberate any persons - tribal, or urban, educated or insane?

Aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer's disease, and is one of the cheapest metals available. Reference: Verstraeten SV, Aimo L, Oteiza PI. Aluminium and lead: molecular mechanisms of brain toxicity. Arch Toxicol. Nov 2008;82(11):789-802. [Medline].

Other studies hint at the decrease of mental acuities in populations that have been subject to aluminium usage over their lifetime. Keeping in sight the point of mining as a key obstruction to the peaceful earthly lifestyles of natives, it might be beneficial to connect a social footprint to this discussion. Will "development" really hold its glittering promise, once all these quotients are taken into a scientific equation? That remains to be seen. My thoughts are that the world will be a much simpler, happier place, if we did not have to make Aloo Mattar Paneer with a splendid tomato cashew sauce in a questionable aluminum pot.. :D

[Madhvendra Shukla]

 Dear Vinod,

                 Sustainable account of the aluminium. The last line: "if we did not have to make Aloo Mattar Paneer with a splendid tomato cashew sauce in a questionable aluminum pot." is worthy of making Head^^^Lines..

[Rahul R Raidas]

The most important thing in processing of aluminium is that it emits the fluoride 1kg/ton of aluminum produced. This affects the human as well environment.

 

[Vinodh Valluri]

Hey Rahul, thanks for sharing that information. I am pondering over the repercussions..

[Madhvendra Shukla]

Hi Rahul,

             You are absolutely true. I missed to put this fact in my discussion. It slipped. Thanks for updating.