It is preliminarily proposed in the implementation plan for carbon peak of nonferrous metal industry that China's nonferrous metal industry will strive to take the lead in achieving carbon peak by 2025 and strive to reduce carbon by 40% by 2040. This plan is five years ahead of the national carbon peak. Carbon neutralization may bring historic new opportunities for the development of recycled aluminum industry.
"Double carbon": "wind fire wheel"
Or "hoop curse"?
The data show that the energy consumption of producing 1 ton of recycled aluminum is only 5% of that of primary aluminum, and only 0.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions are generated. Compared with the production of the same amount of primary aluminum, the production of 1 ton of recycled aluminum is equivalent to saving 3.4 tons of standard coal, 14 cubic meters of water and 20 tons of solid waste. The effect of energy saving and emission reduction of recycled aluminum is obvious.
"The supply side structural reform of China's aluminum industry has set an upper limit for the electrolytic aluminum production capacity. At present, the electrolytic aluminum production capacity is gradually approaching the red line. On the other hand, the automobile lightweight brought by new energy has become an inevitable trend of industry development. Aluminum alloy support materials are widely used in photovoltaic power generation systems. With the increase of output, recycled aluminum, as an excellent material, has greater and broader demand and utilization space. It will become an important measure for China to deal with the aluminum supply gap and realize carbon peak and carbon neutralization as soon as possible. " Relevant personnel of recycled metal branch of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association pointed out at the "China recycled aluminum industry chain integration development forum" of China International Aluminum Industry Exhibition in 2021 that while the recycled aluminum industry is developing rapidly, it is also facing many challenges, such as how to improve the recovery rate of waste aluminum, improve the processing capacity of recycled aluminum, strengthen the graded utilization of recycled aluminum, and improve the utilization of recycled aluminum alloy.
In recent years, the technological progress of recycled aluminum industry has been accelerating, and the breakthrough of sorting technology has made it more affordable to deal with aluminum wastes of different grades, quality and alloys, and created conditions for better controlling melting and maximizing metal recovery. However, the aluminum industry is facing challenges. According to the plan, the total emission of the aluminum industry will be reduced from the current 1.1 billion tons to 250 million tons by 2050. Within 250 million tons, the power emission of smelting part is required to be zero, the emission of production process (anode part) is controlled below 200 million tons, and the recovery and processing are controlled below 50 million tons. With the establishment of this goal, the production of recycled aluminum will become more and more important, and it will be very important to improve metal recovery and energy and resource efficiency.
Li Yanping, director of carbon neutralization Office of carbon neutralization research center of Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, reminded enterprises in her speech at the "China recycled aluminum industry chain integration development forum" held in the same period of the exhibition that compared with carbon peak, carbon neutralization has higher requirements for the decline of absolute amount of carbon dioxide and more arduous challenges“‘ "Double carbon" may be a hoop curse, but it may also be a wind fire wheel with rapid development. To turn the hoop curse into a wind fire wheel, enterprises need to actively interpret policies and reform. " She said.
Closed loop recovery
Assist aluminum processing enterprises in low-carbon development
"The proposal of double carbon target will strengthen the use of waste aluminum by domestic aluminum processing enterprises." Wang Weidong, a senior expert of Beijing Antaike Information Co., Ltd., said at the "China International Aluminum Processing Forum 2021" that the selection of low-carbon materials for production has become the future trend of the development of the aluminum processing industry.
In recent years, the proportion of waste aluminum in downstream aluminum supply has been relatively stable, but the proportion of China's recycled aluminum output in aluminum supply is only about 16%, which is far lower than the level of 70% in some foreign countries and regions and the global average level of 32.8%. According to the data of the world Bureau of metal statistics, the output of recycled aluminum in the United States will be 3.184 million tons in 2020, accounting for 75.6% of the aluminum supply. Britain produces 127000 tons of recycled aluminum, accounting for 78%. Germany's recycled aluminum production accounts for 50.8%.
Aluminum downstream enterprises in the United States and other developed countries generally use waste aluminum. At present, the aluminum extrusion billet in North America is mainly remelted aluminum bars, 63% of which are recycled raw materials, while the aluminum extrusion billet in China is still mainly raw aluminum.
Closed loop recycling and grade protection has become a development direction of recycled aluminum. However, China's closed-loop aluminum recovery system is still in the initial development stage, and the treatment capacity of recycled aluminum needs to be improved. Most of China's recycled aluminum is difficult to be used in deformed aluminum processing, so it can only be degraded and used as die-casting aluminum. According to he Zhiqiang, about 6 million tons of forging waste (4 million tons of rolling and 2 million tons of extrusion) are finally degraded into castings“ With the increase of the supply of used waste after consumption and the flattening of the demand for casting products, alloy pretreatment and sorting are very important for the future. " He said.
Western countries have rich experience in grade protection and utilization. The aluminum plate and strip industry has established a mature closed-loop recycling system for waste cans and a complete recycling system for waste cans. Through closed-loop recycling cooperation with downstream customers, foreign leading enterprises realize the graded use of waste aluminum and pursue the maximization of the value of waste aluminum resources. Nobelis has created the world's largest closed-loop recycling system for automotive waste aluminum, and the proportion of recycled aluminum in its production raw materials has increased from 33% in 2010 to 61% in 2019. Nobelis cooperated with Ford to establish the world's largest closed-loop recycling system for F-series pickup trucks. Through the establishment of this closed-loop recycling system, 90% of the body metal waste of Ford pickup trucks was recycled and reused. Ford's two F-150 production plants in the United States recover about 20 million pounds of waste aluminum every month, which can be used to produce 30000 F-150 pickup trucks.
Wang Weidong said that the construction of this closed-loop recycling system not only saves resources and energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions, but also reduces the manufacturing cost of using aluminum plates to produce car bodies. The homogenization and recycling of aluminum materials in end-of-life vehicles will also greatly improve the enthusiasm of the main engine plant. Wang Weidong said that the construction of this closed-loop recycling system not only saves resources and energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions, but also reduces the manufacturing cost of using aluminum plates to produce car bodies. The homogenization and recycling of aluminum materials in end-of-life vehicles will also greatly improve the enthusiasm of the main engine plant.
He believes that at present, aluminum waste suitable for domestic aluminum processing enterprises to establish a closed-loop recycling system mainly comes from aluminum terminal products with short life cycle and large application volume; Aluminum terminal products with relatively single or centralized aluminum alloy brand shall be applied. The preferred waste materials are leftover materials from aluminum tank enterprises, waste aluminum alloy templates, waste aluminum alloy cables, printing plate base, waste aluminum alloy doors and windows, automobile plate process waste, etc.
As more and more aluminum products enter the scrap stage of the life cycle, more waste aluminum will begin to be recycled, and China will enter the rapid recovery period of waste aluminum in the future. The supply of domestic used aluminum scrap will increase significantly.
Wang Weidong believes that under the "double carbon" goal, China's aluminum processing industry will significantly reduce carbon emissions by increasing the proportion of recycled aluminum“ During the 14th Five Year Plan period, if the aluminum processing industry increases the proportion of waste aluminum year by year, the industry average level will reach 35% by 2025, and the promotion and use of energy-saving and emission reduction technologies will be increased. By 2025, when the total output is 6 million tons higher than that in 2020, the carbon emission of the industry will be 86 million tons lower than that in 2020. " He said.
He suggested that the whole product life cycle should be considered to encourage downstream enterprises to increase the proportion of waste aluminum.