(Image Credit: Russian Aluminum Association/pixabay)
Recently, over a dozen companies, including big names like Pepsi, Ford, Ball Corporation, and GM, requested federal funding to help address demands for a domestic, clean aluminum supply. The letter, addressed to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, aims to gain support for preserving this industry that expects to become more significant while demand increases.
Those companies realize that America is relying more on aluminum supply from foreign sources, and with increasing demand, it could also be sourced from countries like Russia and China. That's a problem because they have yet to show any signs of turning into a clean aluminum producer. Although the six smelters on American soil represent a small and decreasing percentage of worldwide primary aluminum capacity, this didn't occur before. In 2000, the U.S. became the biggest player in producing aluminum. But just last year, the country had under 2% of the global market share.
"As significant buyers of primary aluminum, we strongly support federal investments via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to ensure that the United States will be a leader in producing this critical material, which is essential to America's economic growth," the letter states. "Today, primary aluminum production in the United States is in crisis. While global demand for primary aluminum is forecast to grow over the coming decades, domestic primary aluminum production has continued to decline and is at risk of disappearing. Spiking electricity prices, lack of access to low-cost renewable energy, and insufficient federal investment have pushed the remaining six primary smelters to the brink."
While IRA funds are sent to generate jobs and clean the American industry, regarding aluminum as a small industry is easy due to its condition. Even the rising global demand for non-recycled primary aluminum could significantly increase. So, American aluminum production also needs to expand for the IRA-supported clean energy infrastructure, like transmission lines, electric vehicles, and solar panels. If we don't have this supply, the future clean energy revolution will use higher-carbon aluminum when we need to focus on reducing emissions.
We also need to keep in mind that producing aluminum takes a lot of energy. But it all starts with extraction, which consumes 190 to 230 megajoules per kilogram extracted and processed. And it takes 17,000 kWh just to produce one tonne of aluminum. Just last year, North America used 48,939 GWh to produce 3,743,000 tonnes. Europe has also joined the ranks, consuming 119,081 GWh to produce 6,994,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, China ate up 540,792 GWh to produce 40,430,000 tonnes. And if we look at total world production, the numbers are even more staggering — 903,980 GWh to produce 69,038,000 tonnes.
Of course, some efforts are being made to help improve aluminum production energy efficiency with newer technologies. Recycling processes are also being used to tackle this problem.
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