The material that’s in everything from your car to your iPhone charger has seen a major breakthrough, and Canada is right at the centre of it.
What happened: Backed by $140 million from the Québec government, the multinational mining giant Rio Tinto is building a new plant featuring a world-first aluminum smelting technology that produces aluminum without directly emitting any greenhouse gases.
- Starting in 2027, Rio Tinto expects to pump out around 2,500 tonnes of commercial-quality, carbon-free aluminum every year. That’s almost 188 million soda cans.
Catch-up: Aluminum is already one of the most used materials in the world, and demand for it is expected to jump 40% by 2030. Its main drawback is that its initial production has proven to be a very carbon-intensive process, a problem that this new tech hopes to solve.
- The production plant could cut Canadian greenhouse gas emissions by about 7 million metric tonnes a year — the equivalent of taking 1.8 million vehicles off the road.
Why it matters: Being the first country in the world to produce carbon-free aluminum gives Canada, which is already a top-five global aluminum producer, a head start as more manufacturers are forced to decarbonize their supply chains.—LA