Aluminium exhibition | Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Yield Visible Results, and the Development of Recycled Aluminum Takes a Step Forward

Vigorously promoting recycled aluminum has become an important pathway for China and even the global aluminum industry's low-carbon transformation. At the 2023 Green Development Conference of the Recycled Aluminum Industry held on August 11th, Wang Jian, a member of the Party Committee and Vice President of the China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association, revealed that China's recycled aluminum production has steadily increased. In the first half of this year, the production of recycled aluminum reached 4.65 million tons, an increase of 9.4% compared to the same period last year. It has played a significant role in resource security and energy conservation and emission reduction.

Continued Expansion of the Industry Scale

Recycled aluminum, also known as "secondary aluminum," is aluminium obtained through the smelting of scrap aluminium parts and scrap aluminum materials. Its carbon emissions are only about 2% of primary aluminum, making it a key player in the non-ferrous metal industry's carbon reduction efforts.

According to the Aluminium Exhibition, in recent years, thanks to its advantages in low-carbon environmental protection and low cost, recycled aluminum has received high-level attention from the government. The "Action Plan for Peak Carbon Emissions by 2030" emphasizes accelerating the development of the recycled non-ferrous metal industry, improving the recycling, sorting, and processing network for discarded non-ferrous metal resources, and increasing the production of recycled non-ferrous metals. The "Implementation Plan for Carbon Peaking in the Non-ferrous Metal Industry" emphasizes that by 2025, the production of recycled aluminum should reach 11.5 million tons...

"With the support and guidance of many favorable policies, the recycled aluminum industry has made strides in terms of industry scale, raw material structure, technological progress, and industrial layout," Wang Jian explained. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the scale of the recycled aluminum industry has continued to expand, with a capacity of more than 18 million tons. The five provinces of Guangxi, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Henan, and Jiangxi account for 61% of the total recycled aluminum capacity. The raw material supply has formed a favorable pattern with domestic supply as the main source supplemented by imports, with domestic raw materials accounting for more than 80%.

At the same time, there has been a noticeable upgrade in process technology and equipment, with advanced recycled aluminum enterprises having comprehensive energy consumption of less than 100 standard coal per ton. New products have been applied, and the integration and development of the industrial chain have taken shape. Primary aluminum companies have accelerated their entry into the recycled aluminum field, processing companies have increased the proportion of recycled aluminum raw materials, and downstream manufacturing companies, such as automobiles, household appliances, and packaging, have paid more attention to the use of recycled aluminum materials.

"We must raise our awareness, focus on high-quality development, seize the 'dual carbon' strategic opportunities, adhere to innovation-driven, and meet the new requirements of national development for recycled aluminum," Wang Jian concluded.

Expanding Application Scenarios

With the continuous strengthening of technological innovation, the application scenarios of recycled aluminum materials are also expanding.

In the construction sector, recycled aluminum materials can be used in building facades, power lines, transportation vehicles, bridges, and other structural elements. They offer advantages such as lightweight, high strength, easy processing, and long lifespan.

In the packaging industry, recycled aluminum materials can be used to manufacture beverage cans, food containers, and other packaging containers. They provide benefits such as moisture resistance, corrosion resistance, and preservation.

In the electronics sector, recycled aluminum materials can be used to produce electronic product casings, heat sinks, and other components. They offer good conductivity, corrosion resistance, and ease of processing.

With the rapid development of new energy vehicles and the deepening trend of automotive lightweighting, recycled aluminum materials are playing an increasingly important role in the field of new energy vehicles. Components such as vehicle bodies, engines, and wheel hubs now incorporate recycled aluminum.

Xiaolei Shi, a researcher at China Automotive Data Corporation's Sustainable Development Business Division, believes that in the context of "carbon neutrality," the degree of electrification and penetration of vehicle models is gradually increasing, which will boost the use of lightweight aluminum materials in vehicles. In addition to the relatively high smelting cost of primary aluminum compared to steel and copper, the cost of primary aluminum manufacturing is increasing due to the increasingly scarce mineral resources. Furthermore, aluminum alloys have strong corrosion resistance, can be recycled repeatedly, and possess excellent recyclability, making recycled aluminum a key material for green and low-carbon development in the current automotive lightweighting trend. "To promote the automotive industry to work in four dimensions: capable, willing, daring, and wanting to use recycled aluminum on a large scale and in a standardized manner in components," Shi Xiaolei said.

In addition to continuous expansion in the above-mentioned major sectors, Wang Jian also hopes to expand the application of recycled aluminum in high-end fields such as 3C electronics, solar cell materials, rail transit, aerospace, marine equipment, and urban home furnishings.