Publication Date
Fall 2023
Abstract
Aluminum production is a process that is heavily reliant on large amounts of available
energy, and therefore lends itself to locations where energy production is abundant. Iceland, as a global leader in Geothermal and Hydropower energy, has experienced an industrial boom in the past 20-30 years, quickly becoming a top 10 worldwide aluminum producer. However, although the three main companies that operate their smelting processes in the country are powered by clean energy, they still import raw materials from all over the world, with source locations ranging from Brazil to Australia. In order to find out if the long distance shipping of aluminum has a significant negative impact on the overall CO2 emissions of aluminum production, I developed “AlCa”, a comprehensive analysis tool that calculates the total CO2 emissions and the specific emissions of each step in the aluminum-production process based on where that step takes place. Using this robust tool, I conducted three separate case studies. Two are based on existing production strategies for Icelandic aluminum. The findings from these cases are visualized, analyzed, and explained in the context of worldwide aluminum production. It was discovered that shipping emissions, compared to process-direct emissions, are much less significant, and often inconsequential in deciding how to improve emissions in aluminum production.
Keywords: aluminum smelting, energy production, carbon emissions, carbon dioxide, aluminum shipping, predictive algorithm, climate change
Disciplines
Environmental Sciences | Materials Science and Engineering | Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Recommended Citation
Sujansky, Markus, "AlCa: Comparing Icelandic Aluminum Emissions to the World through Statistical Reasoning and Programming-Based Predictive Tools" (2023). Iceland: Climate Change and The Arctic. 2.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/icc2/2
