Aluminium producers: company screen?
…to aluminium is quantified by company. 8 out of 10 of the companies are aluminium ‘pure plays’ with 80% exposure to aluminium, or higher, on an EBITDA basis. Rio Tinto…
Aluminium production: energy economics?
…kg of aluminium. It is possible to generate a 10% IRR on a new aluminium plant, at recent aluminium prices of $2.3/kg of production. However, this is only possible under…
Power cables: carrying capacity and loss rates?
…decarbonize aluminium could double the costs. Power cables aluminium intensity in kg per kW per km Material costs of conductors are usually around 40% of total conductor costs. Installation and…
Illustrating industrial energy efficiency in the context of cooking?
…aluminium blocks are non-ferromagnetic. They are not heated up by electromagnetic induction. Hence the standard test need to be modified, placing the aluminium blocks in ferromagnetic pans. Because induction heaters…
Power grids: down to the wire?
…cable demand is more likely to stoke aluminium than copper. Leading global copper producers and leading global aluminium producers are discussed on pages 8 and 9. Circuit kilometers needed for…
Plastic products: energy and CO2 intensity of plastics?
…all evil! Aluminium packaging can also be highly energy and CO2-efficient. We have assumed a global average grade of aluminium, embedding about 9 tons of CO2 per ton of aluminium,…
Advanced Conductors versus ACSR: costs and companies?
Advanced Conductors have 2x higher amperage capacities and temperature limits than standard Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced (ACSR) used in AC transmission lines. This data-file screens Advanced Conductors versus ACSR on…
Boston Metal: molten oxide electrolysis of steel?
…it halve the operating temperature of the cell, but the sodium cations (-2.71V) have a standard electrode potential that is more negative than the aluminium ions (-1.67V), so the aluminium…
Commodity prices: metals, materials and chemicals?
…their ten-year averages in 2022, as internationally traded prices rose sharply for nickel, rose modestly for aluminium and zinc, and remained high for copper (chart below). Base metal prices by…
Electrowinning: costs and energy economics?
…PGMs and Rare Earths. Even aluminium, chlor-alkali and green hydrogen are debatably electro-winning processes, or at the least electro-chemical processes whose energy economics can all be modeled using Faraday’s Law…