Editorial by Magnus Bach, Vice President of Business Development of Atoco, published on the Aluminium Journal on May 27th, 2025.
Alumnium Journal: Cost-efficient Carbon Capture with Nano-engineered Reticular Materials
In this editorial, Magnus Bach, VP of Business Development, highlights how nano-engineered reticular materials offer a transformative solution for cost-efficient carbon capture in aluminium production, effectively addressing the challenges posed by ultra-dilute and chemically complex off-gases.
Aluminium production presents a unique and often underestimated challenge in industrial decarbonisation. As one of the most energy-intensive industries – responsible for about 1% of industrial energy use in the EU27 (Eurostat, 2020) and 3% of global direct industrial CO₂ emissions in 2022 (IEA, 2023) – the sector faces increasing pressure to align with climate goals. Decarbonisation is especially difficult due to high energy demands, carbon-intensive alumina feedstock, reliance on fossil-fuel electricity, and carbon anodes that emit CO₂ and potent perfluorocarbons (PFCs) during electrolysis.
Unlike cement or steel, aluminium smelting produces off-gases with CO₂ concentrations of around 1%. This highly dilute stream makes capture with existing technologies far more energy- and cost-intensive. To make carbon capture viable for the industry, incremental improvements are not enough – something transformative is required.
The challenge of carbon capture in the aluminium industry
The main obstacle to carbon capture in aluminium smelting is not just the volume of emissions, but their quality. Off-gases from electrolysis contain very low CO₂ concentrations – typically around 1% by volume – much lower than in cement or steel production. This ultra-dilute stream makes traditional post-combustion capture technologies, designed for richer gas mixtures, far less efficient. As a result, capturing CO₂ from aluminium smelters is significantly more energy- and cost-intensive per tonne.
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