Company recognised for climate change solution

Alcoa has received The Clean Air Achievement Award from the WA branch of the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand (CASANZ). The award was presented to the company for its Carbon capture technology that delivers greenhouse benefits by locking up CO₂ that is otherwise released into the atmosphere.

The Carbon Capture system was developed by the company’s global Technology Delivery Group (TDG) based at Kwinana and is already operational in the Kwinana alumina refinery.

“Carbon capture technology is a key part of our solution to make the aluminium industry carbon neutral by 2020. The Kwinana carbonation plant alone will lock up 70,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year, the equivalent of taking 17,500 cars off the road,” David Cooling, residue development manager, TDG, said.

“This becomes 75,000 cars each year when the system is applied to all three alumina refineries in WA.”

As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to reduce its global emissions, it is investigating options to deploy the technology to its refineries worldwide with potential application to the global aluminium industry.