Does green aluminium really exist?

And, if so, what exactly is it?

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Figure 1 The six environmental objectives of the EU Taxonomy. Economic activities and associated products must fulfill at least one of these objectives to be considered “green”. [4]

First things first: aluminium has a silvery color and is only green once painted or anodized. This fact is important to bear in mind when scrutinizing claims of green aluminium. Ultimately, only on closer inspection does it become clear wether an assertion is just that, i.e. colored green, or wether the statement is comprehensively technically correct.AMAG has pursued the latter option for many years now. The company only makes public statements on sustainability-related issues when its claims can be audited by accredited third-party bodies and certifiably documented. Let’s start at the beginning.

What exactly does “green” mean in the context of green aluminium?

A little research makes clear that the term is not at all easy to define.The German Environment Agency (UBA) defines green economy as a “concept that follows the model of an environmentally compatible economy. It promotes environmentally compatible growth by recognizing environmental limits and anticipating economic scarcity and costs.” [1] It states that a product is considered green “when it stands out significantly from functionally comparable products in terms of its environmental quality.” [1]Furthermore, the Austrian Environment Agency (UBA) defines green chemistry as “environmentally oriented chemistry that aims to reduce negative impacts on the environment and human health. Even in the design phase, manufacturing processes for products should be made more energy-efficient, resource-efficient and compatible with health and the environment.” [2] These lengthy descriptions illustrate just how vague the term “green” is - and highlights the potential to dilute its definition for the purpose of greenwashing [3, 4].

The EU Taxonomy: A catalog of sustainable activities

For this reason, the EU introduced a standardized system called the EU Taxonomy. With its name derived from the ancient Green words “taxis”, meaning order, and “nomos”, meaning law, the EU Taxonomy is a classification method for defining sustainable business activities. The EU created this taxonomy to highlight a catalog of activities that are considered sustainable. In more general terms, the EU Taxonomy is intended to clearly state whether a given economic activity is sustainable, providing a yes or no answer [5].The six environmental objectives for sustainable economic activities [6, Article 9] are shown in Figure 1:

  1. Climate change mitigation
  2. Climate change adaptation
  3. Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
  4. Transition to a circular economy
  5. Pollution prevention and control
  6. Protection and restoration of bio diversity and ecosystems

Industrial production in pursuit of these objectives must therefore follow all four of the following criteria [6, Article 3, defined further in Articles 10-19; see also Figure 2]:

  • It must contribute to one of the six environment objectives.
  • It must do no significant harm (DNSH principle).
  • It must meet minimum safety standards, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, to avoid having a negative social impact.
  • It must comply with the technical screening criteria developed by the EU Technical Expert Group (appointed by the EU Commission).

These criteria and related terms are also clearly defined in the EU Taxonomy Regulation [6, Article 2]. The EU has therefore established a precise definition of the requirements for, and implementation of, sustainable economic activity - and, as a result, for “green aluminium” [7]. Each of these objectives and criteria entails an array of downstream legislative requirements. For example, in relation to climate change mitigation alone, a wide-ranging legal framework and many initiatives have been introduced. It would not be possible to detail them in this article.However, AMAG shone a light on this very issue in an article in ALUMINIUM Journal 12/2023, examining the specific preparations made to date.

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Figure 2: The four criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities. All four criteria must be met for activities to be considered sustainable. [4]

Implementation of fields of action for green aluminium

For aluminium production to comply with the EU Taxonomy’s requirements for green products, it is important to consider both the input side and the process side.

The input side:

As described in a past issue of AluReport [8], the aluminium market is growing at a rate of approx. 3-4 % per year, with this trend showing no signs of slowing. Due to high durability of aluminium products and the growth rate at the moment, relatively little aluminium scrap comes back for recycling. This means that primary metal is still used to cover more than two-thirds of the demand for aluminium products. Thus it is only possible to cover around one-third of demand through recycling [9].This makes it all the more important to recycle the material as efficiently as possible. In addition to efficient processes, this also means making the best possible use of collected scrap. Aluminium products are made from many different alloys with different alloying elements that determine their properties. Combining these various alloys creates a mixture that does not correspond to any individual alloy family. With this in mind, producing a high-quality alloy exclusively using mixed scrap recovered from waste presents a considerable technical challenge. The options are therefore to produce an alloy that meets more lenient requirements (downgrading), increase the purity of the scrap by adding primary aluminium, or carefully sort the scrap mixture and precisely configure the microstructure of the output metal. When it comes to increasing the proportion of recycled material and manufacturing larger volumes, coordinating with customers is paramount. Without changing the tolerances for existing alloys, the volume of usable scrap will not even cover a third of demand in most cases.

The process side:

AMAG production facilities were designed and are operated to meet or even surpass the current state-of-the-art technology, comply with all legal requirements, and minimize their environmental impacts as far as possible. Minimizing environmental impacts includes making sure the company uses materials, auxiliary and operating materials, water and energy as efficiently as possible. It is also vital that we continuously optimize our production processes and invest in state-of-the-art machinery. AMAG therefore takes a comprehensive view of all environment impacts and efforts to minimize them. This includes measuring emissions released into the air, ground and water. These figures are subject to strict, regular monitoring. For example, AMAG continuously monitors the composition of exhaust gas from the smelting furnace by examining dust particle levels and organic carbon compounds. The measurement devices are subject to minimum availability periods that must be fully documented. Device availability figures and measurement results are documented in annual reports and transmitted to the authorities.Similar statutory requirements apply for emissions into the ground and water. Cooling water for the production is circulated. Thanks to improvements, AMAG has kept its water consumption and industrial water abstraction levels constant over the years while increasing its production capacities. Furthermore are reused excavated material and rubble from construction sites within the company. AMAG also works hard to implement the sixth aspect of the EU Taxonomy: biodiversity.These efforts include managing the company’s forest (180 ha), focusing on native woods with high tolerance of climate stresses, with support from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. In addition, the company’s initiative to breed Varroa-resistant bees in partnership with "Bienenzuchtgruppe Oberösterreich-Salzburg" has already achieved initial successes.

Even greener aluminium?

There are calls from lawmakers and customers (the latter often spurred on by the former) to make aluminium even greener, further reducing its negative impacts on the environment. While AMAG is happy to comply with this request, it is important to ensure this is a shared endeavor. In November 2023, AMAG started its first large-scale test to smelt aluminium on an industrial scale using hydrogen as the only fuel source. Preparations for the test have been underway for over a year. The official approval process will have to be expedited before conversion of the company’s smelting activities.Public authorities will also have to guarantee provision of the necessary infrastructure and swiftly prepare connections for green electricity and pipelines for green hydrogen. It is also crucial for these resources to be supplied in sufficient volumes and at competitive prices. Companies should work with their customers to establish long-term, closed-loop relationships so that scrap can be recycled into new products with no loss of quality, with established alloy tolerances revised to facilitate increased use of mixed scrap. AMAG’s leading expertise in aluminium recycling will become even more important for the production of green aluminum. Continuing to produce high volumes of aluminium will require AMAG to coordinate closely with its customers.Producing secondary aluminium only requires 5 % to 10 % of the energy used in primary aluminium production and thereby represents the most significant contribution to creating a climate-neutral product and a climate-neutral industrial site. However, if we are to fully exploit this potential, we will also have to achieve corresponding innovations in relation to alloys, with wider tolerance ranges for alloying elements to increase the scrap utilization rate, or novel alloy concepts such as AMAG CrossAlloys®.

Benefits for customers:

Green aluminium is not an empty marketing buzzword: it is clearly defined in the EU Taxonomy Regulation. Although the primary focus is on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, this is only one aspect of the EU’s comprehensive sustainability objectives.

This holistic approach has long been part of AMAG’s DNA and is always part of our product development activities. AMAG has been doing this systematically for many years, with independent certifications and awards attesting to its success.

 

Sources

[1]    German Environment Agency (UBA) “Grüne Produkte in Deutschland, Status Quo und Trends”, April 2013, Fachgebiet III 1.1, Übergreifende Aspekte des produktbezogenen Umweltschutzes, nachhaltige Konsumstrukturen, Innovationsprogramm, Dr. Michael Bilharz, Dessau-Rosslau, Germany,https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/376/publikationen/gruene_produkte_in_deutschland_status_quo_und_trends_neulayout.pdf [2]    Austrian Environment Agency (UBA) “Grundlagendokument - Entwicklung einer Kreislaufwirtschaftsstrategie”, G. Moser, B. Karigl, S. Benda-Kahri, Report REP-0782, 2021, A-1090 Vienna, ISBN-13 978-3-99004-606-7,  https://www.umweltbundesamt.at/fileadmin/site/publikationen/rep0782.pdf[3]    Duden, “Greenwashing”, Deutsches Universalwörterbuch: Das große Bedeutungswörterbuch, 10th edition, Dudenverlag, October 16, 2023, Berlin, ISBN-13 978-3411055104 or at https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Greenwashing[4]    European Commission, EU Taxonomy Navigator, https://ec.europa.eu/sustainable-finance-taxonomy/ and “A User Guide to Navigate the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities”, June 2023, ISBN-13 978-92-76-40678-5, https://ec.europa.eu/sustainable-finance-taxonomy/assets/documents/Taxonomy%20User%20Guide.pdf[5]    Envoria, Munich, Germany https://eu-taxonomy.info/de/info/eu-taxonomy-grundlagen accessed on November 2 2023[6]    Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (text with EEA relevance), Document 32020R0852, Article 9, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2020/852/oj and consolidated version: Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (text with EEA relevance), Articles 10-19, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2020/852/2020-06-22[7]    Commission Notice on the interpretation and implementation of certain legal provisions of the Disclosures Delegated Act under Article 8 of EU Taxonomy Regulation on the reporting of Taxonomy-eligible and Taxonomy-aligned economic activities and assets (secondCommission Notice), Official Journal of the European Union, C/2023/305, 20.10.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2023/305/oj[8]    AluReport 02/2021, “The Crux of CO2 Accounting”, pages 12-15, https://www.calameo.com/read/003424018247f209d628e[9]    International Aluminium Institute, “Aluminium Recycling Factsheet”, October 2020, London, https://international-aluminium.org/resource/aluminium-recycling-fact-sheet/

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