Ahead of ALUMINIUM, the world's leading trade fair in Düsseldorf, ABB experts looked at some of the developments that help drive the aluminum industry.
ABB, which offers a comprehensive range of products and services that address the aluminum industry's challenges from raw material processing to final product delivery, has identified some of the trends that will impact the aluminum sector in 2025 and beyond.
Producing recycled secondary aluminum from scrap metal has tremendous potential for decarbonization of the aluminum industry. At the same time, the increased use of innovative digital technologies can boost quality and reduce waste, as well as address a growing skills shortage.
Trend 1 - The shift to secondary aluminum has tremendous potential as companies look to decarbonize their operations
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Rising demands for everything from electric vehicles and packaging through to the infrastructure needed for renewable electricity are set to increase global aluminum production by 40 percent by 2030. However, meeting this demand without changing the way aluminum is produced is unsustainable. Today, producing just one tonne of primary aluminum generates greenhouse gas emissions of 16 tonnes CO2e.
Primary aluminum currently accounts for around 70 percent of the world’s aluminum production. A variety of energy intensive processes, including refining aluminum oxide from bauxite ore and then smelting it to produce pure aluminum, make primary aluminum production a significant emitter of greenhouse gases.
At the same time, around 75 percent of the aluminum ever produced is still in use, representing a huge source of potentially recyclable material. Using scrap as a feedstock for the production of secondary aluminum offers massive potential with up to 95 percent direct CO2 emissions saved compared to primary aluminum. The International Energy Agency expects the share of secondary aluminum production to reach 42 percent by 2030.
“We have the technologies for optimizing the performance of both primary and secondary aluminum production processes,” said Marko Sydanlammi, Global Product Line Manager Flatness Systems, ABB Measurement & Analytics. “Solutions for flatness, tension and roll force measurement, for example, ensure that aluminum is produced to the right tolerances regardless of whether it is made from scratch or from scrap.”
Trend 2 - Increased use of innovative digital technologies in aluminum production can boost quality and reduce waste, as well as address a growing skills shortage
Image Credit: ABB Inc.
Ongoing developments in digital technology, both at factory floor and control room level, are offering expanded possibilities for aluminum producers to gather, analyze, and utilize their production data. The wider adoption of sensors using Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology has increased the scope for collecting and relaying a broad range of data that can be used to monitor production performance in real-time.
“Digitalization will play an increasing role in helping to minimize the risk of errors that can impact on quality and generate excessive waste during aluminum production,” said Tarun Mathur, Global Portfolio and Sales Manager Digital, Metals industry, ABB Process Industries. “When coupled with the analytical capabilities offered by edge and cloud technologies, producers will increasingly benefit from the use of big data to spot problem areas and optimize production and sustainability through reduced waste and improved energy performance.”
By enabling operators to do more with their data with less effort, developments in sensing and control technologies can also help producers address the problem of a growing skills shortage caused by experienced workers retiring faster than they can be replaced.
As more production plants embrace digitalization, cyber security will also become a growing priority.
Find out what you missed at ABB’s booth at Aluminium 2024, 8-10 October in Dusseldorf, Germany: ABB at ALUMINIUM 2024