Energy and Exergy Analysis of the Primary Aluminum Production Processes: A Review on Current and Future Sustainability

The common industrial practice for primary aluminum production consists of the Bayer process for the production of alumina followed by the Hall–Héroult process for the production of aluminum. Both processes were developed at the end of the 19th century and despite continuous optimization, their basic thermodynamic inefficiencies and environmental issues remain till today unchanged. As a result, primary aluminum production industry is the world's larger industrial consumer of energy, is ranked among the most CO2 intensive industries, and is associated with the generation of enormous quantities of solid wastes. In this paper a detail energy and exergy analysis of the primary production of aluminum is presented and alternative sustainable processes are reviewed.

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