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    All that Emits in Aluminum: Rio Tinto, Hydro Piloting Decarbonization in Smelting & Electrolysis

    Jan. 31, 2025
    Capturing carbon from aluminum smelter flue gas, with CO2 concentrations around 1% of volume, requires adapting direct air capture technologies.
    Image of melted aluminum. Credit ID 134410156 © Pepebaeza | Dreamstime.com
    Image of melted aluminum. Credit ID 134410156 © Pepebaeza | Dreamstime.com

    Global mining firm Rio Tinto and aluminum recycler Hydro are going to partner on identifying best practices to capture carbon for future use in aluminum electrolysis.

    Australian-based Rio Tinto is one of the industry's biggest producers in aluminum, with bauxite mines and alumina refineries worldwide. Together, the two companies are expecting to invest close to $45 million over five years to decarbonize aluminum production and recycling.

    Most of the work will be focused at Rio Tinto’s facilities in Europe and Hydro’s in Norway. Both companies also will continue to work on decarbonization in their respective aluminum sectors independently.

    “Carbon capture technologies are critical to decarbonizing existing smelters, and our partnership with Rio Tinto will amplify efforts to develop fit-for-purpose solutions that can accelerate the aluminium industry’s transition towards net-zero production,” Hydro President and CEO Eivind Kallevik said in a statement.

    The agreement will help provide sharing of certain information, results and costs covering specific R&D activities from lab tests with external suppliers to larger, on-site pilots, to create improved offerings of commercially viable carbon capture technologies from relevant suppliers.

    Anode consumption during the electrolysis process results in about three quarters of a smelter’s direct CO2 emissions. Scientists from Rio Tinto and Hydro studied different carbon capture technologies as solutions to help them meet their climate targets with the development and scaling up of carbon-free aluminium smelting technologies such as Hydro’s HalZero technology and Rio Tinto’s participation in the ELYSIS joint venture.

    Capturing carbon from aluminum smelter flue gas, with CO2 concentrations around 1% of volume, requires adapting direct air capture technologies for higher concentrations or point source technologies for lower concentrations. The current technology readiness level is low and requires development efforts to mature from laboratory to commercial scale in both cases.

    Rio Tinto has been working within its own brands and other companies on aluminum decarbonization for about a decade. ELYSIS, its joint venture with American metals firm Alcoa, is working on smelting technology to achieve zero-emissions aluminum in Canada.

    In 2016, Rio Tinto launched RenewAI, its first certified low CO2 primary aluminum brand.

    “Rio Tinto is committed to reaching net zero emissions from our operations by 2050, and we know that achieving our climate objectives will require a portfolio of solutions,” Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said. “By working in partnership with Hydro to assess certain carbon capture technologies for aluminium smelters, we are finding better ways to leverage our complementary networks and R&D capabilities to address the climate change challenge.”

    Hydro is a subsidiary of Norsk Hydro based in Norway. In the U.S., the company has invested $85 million in new technology designed to develop high quality recycled aluminum for the automobile industry.

    Aluminum, or aluminium as it is known in Europe and mostly worldwide, is an abundant chemical element and one of the lighter metals with the atomic symbol AI.

    Global aluminium production emits close to 1.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases per year, according to International Aluminium. Electrolysis accounts for close to 791 metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually, while the refining process creates 166 million metric tons.

     

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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