On January 1, 2015, the new Environment Protection Law, deemed the “strictest ever”, officially came into force.  With it came stronger regulatory measures and stricter legal liabilities, with a focus on environment protection and promotion of sustained socio-economic development. 

For the gigantic Chinese aluminium industry, which has been first in the world for 12 consecutive years in output and consumption, environment protection, energy conservation and green development considerations of processes and equipment play a key role in driving economic and social benefits within the aluminium industry.  Strict environmental protection regulations force aluminum companies to eliminate high-consumption, high-pollution equipment, and explore a path of upgrade and transformation.  

Aluminum China 2015, a trusted barometer of the industry, has responded to calls from Chinese aluminum firms for environmentally sound technologies and equipment. In 2015, a special environmental protection and energy conservation zone is specifically designated to showcase up-to-date environment-friendly aluminium processing technologies, equipment, and products.

Industry experts say the main pollutants of the aluminum industry are the red mud generated in making aluminum oxide; fluorine-containing waste gas generated from electrolysis; flue gas generated from carbon calcination and roasting; waste from heavy repair of electrolytic baths, and waste water/oil from aluminum processing.  All of these have been key targets of environmental protection supervision, having raised concerns regarding occupational health & safety, as well as the sustainability of social, ecological and economic development.

“To lead the aluminum industry to green, low-carbon development and energy conservation, Aluminum China 2015 will showcase a batch of advanced equipment that meets those requirements, and introduce excellent Chinese products to the world.   The show will also highlight the world’s most up-to-date aluminium processing products to China, improving the overall environmental protection level of the country’s aluminum industry.  This will include environmental protection, intelligent technology, and integrated control”, said Chris Zang, Senior Project Manager of Reed Exhibitions China, organizers of Aluminium China 2015.

For waste gas pollution, among all kinds of production equipment used in the aluminum industry, furnaces are among the main energy-consumers and pollution sources.  Therefore,  promoting environment protection and energy conservation of furnaces in the aluminum industry will be a major breakthrough.  

Currently, Chinese industrial furnace manufacturing has become a large industry system capable of independent innovation, covering extensive fields. However, we can’t overlook the fact that Chinese industrial furnace manufacturing has bottlenecks: there are few core technologies with proprietary intellectual property rights and some key technologies, and intelligent control systems in particular, still depend on imports; big enterprises and internationally competitive big brands are lacking.  The industry is not concentrated, and cutthroat competition happens from time to time; integration of high-level, innovative technologies and traditional industrial furnace manufacturing techniques is not intelligent and environmental enough – it should be further “informationized”.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s “Made in China 2025” Plan proposes that efficient green production equipment and technologies be used to transform conventional manufacturing procedures.  The efficient motor boiler technology will be vigorously adopted to implement green transformation focused on energy conservation and environment protection, to speed up green upgrades in the aluminum industry.  This clearly shows the direction the industry is heading in, and has raised the need for higher requirements to develop the industrial furnace industry.

Aluminum China 2015 will present numerous environment-friendly, energy-saving and efficient products in a special zone for energy conservation and environment protection. It will also showcase up-to-date information, intelligent and low-carbon equipment, talk about new energy conservation and environmental protection technologies.  The result will be to present the global aluminum industry with an interactive platform for communication, cooperation, technical problem-solving and product promotion.

Moreover, the special environmental protection and energy conservation zone in Aluminum China 2015, where many outstanding suppliers in environment protection will gather, will show technologies, materials and equipment for wastewater pollution treatment. Among others, Guangzhou Shangshui Environmental Technology, will feature advanced energy-saving, emission-reducing technologies and solutions, including those for treatment and reuse of waste water and treatment of waste gas from aluminum processing, recovery of flue gas waste heat from electrolytic aluminum, and online recovery of hot water from heat pumps and hot water tanks.

Thanks to a good reputation and powerful resources accumulated in the 11 years the show has been running, Aluminium China 2015 will gather experts from many scientific research institutes and businesses, to discuss environmental protection-focused topics.  These will include disposal and recovery of waste water, alkali corrosion additives and colorants from aluminum surface anodizing, as well as hot topics in the surface treatment field, including corrosion protection, abrasion resistance, high-temperature resistance, and oxidation resistance.  The result will be to provide aluminum surface treatment and integrated solutions for space flight and aviation, new energy, construction and real estate, machine building and other relevant industries.  Environmental and green development of the aluminum industry will save the future by saving energy now.  This is vital to sustained economic, ecological and social development.

The China Non-ferrous Metals Industry Association endorses Aluminium China for showcasing up-to-date technologies, equipment and products of the aluminum industry and highlighting environment protection concepts through its Environment Protection Zone.  In this way, the show promotes green, healthy, sustained development in the Chinese aluminum industry, together with producers, buyers, engineers and technicians.