Reinventing aluminium production for tomorrow's transportation

The latest Audi, Jaguar and Chevrolet Corvette supercars and the giant Airbus 380 rely on aluminium for their outstanding performances, fuel efficiency and low greenhouse emissions, highlighting it as the structural metal of the future.

The aluminium production process is being reinvented within Rio Tinto Alcan, the world's largest producer since the merger of Rio Tinto with Alcan in late 2007. Plans are far advanced to slash greenhouse gas emissions, cut energy per tonne of metal and shrink ecological footprints - while maintaining fierce price competitiveness against rising metals giants such as China and Russia.

As a business that produces more than half of its own energy, Rio Tinto Alcan finds itself in a leading position to hasten the introduction of new 'clean coal' generation technologies such as integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and carbon capture and storage (CCS), and much effort is now going into this.

Between 1990 and 2005, Rio Tinto Alcan managed to drop its total greenhouse gas emission intensity by 25 per cent, with a further ten per cent targeted by 2010. The long term dream is to zero the greenhouse contribution of aluminium smelting altogether.

Such vaulting ambition is of central importance in today's climate sensitive market. The average car's aluminium content has jumped from 240lbs to 357lbs in the quest for fuel efficiency. Peak oil and the higher fuel costs it ushers in will only accelerate that trend, and while resins, plastics and titanium compete at the margins, the car of the future is likely to be substantially built from aluminium. If the aluminium can come without greenhouse penalty, it will be doubly attractive to motorist and manufacturer alike.