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This work has been carried out in the frame of the AlSiCal project, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N degrees 820911. The purpose of this research within the AlSiCal project was to get knowledge about the Bayer process and to use these data as a benchmarking on alumina production, given that the AlSiCal new technology aims to produce alumina, silica, and precipitated calcium carbonate from anorthosite minerals.

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Garcia-Franco, EnriqueAuthor

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The effects of energy consumption of alumina production in the environmental impacts using life cycle assessment

Publicated to:International Journal Of Life Cycle Assessment. 29 (3): 380-393 - 2023-12-12 29(3), DOI: 10.1007/s11367-023-02257-8

Authors: Saez-Guinoa, Javier; Garcia-Franco, Enrique; Llera-Sastresa, Eva; Romeo, Luis M

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Abstract

PurposeAluminium industry emits around 1-2% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. Up to one-third of those are linked to the thermal energy consumed during its initial process: the alumina refining (Bayer process). Previous studies consider the Bayer process a single stage despite its being made of several reaction stages. This work presents a disaggregated energy analysis of the Bayer process that facilitates to find relationships between the main variables in regular alumina production and the environmental impacts.MethodsTwo different thermodynamic simulations of the Bayer process were carried out using Aspen V11 software. The results of these simulations were validated with referenced data, and afterwards, they were used to perform a life cycle assessment. ISO 14040 and 14,044 standards were followed during the analysis. LCA was implemented on SimaPro 9.0, and ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) method was used to calculate environmental impacts. The influence of bauxite mineral form, type of fuel (energy input), and the distance from the mine to the plant was analysed throughout the study.Results and discussionAs expected, the type of fuel was revealed as the most crucial factor in the environmental impact of alumina production, with potential savings of up to 75.5% of CO2-equivalent emissions. Nonetheless, the tendency is diverse for other indicators, such as marine eutrophication or terrestrial acidification. On the other hand, while bauxite transportation always has the same impact on the different environmental indicators, bauxite mineral form affects differently depending on the fuel, causing variations in the CO2-eq emissions from 7.7 to 51.3%.ConclusionsResults indicated that the electrification of heat-demanding processes and the use of renewable power is the most effective approach for reducing environmental impacts. This strategy, however, must be considered in combination with others, as interdependent effects exist on the type of mineral used. These results provide strong evidence of the potential for environmentally friendly strategies in the metal industry, including new processes, alternative fuels, or mineral switching to promote more sustainable aluminium production.

Keywords

AluminaBauxiteBayer processCradleDrossGhg emissionsGlobal warming potentialGreenhouse gasesLcLcaLife cycle assessmenMetal

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal International Journal Of Life Cycle Assessment due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 84/358, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Sciences.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 9, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions May 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-05-31, the following number of citations:

  • Scopus: 11
  • OpenCitations: 3

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-05-31:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 74.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 71 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 9.