Apple May Use Carbon-Free Aluminum In New iPhones (bloomberg.com) 43
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple is taking delivery this month of the first batch of carbon-free aluminum produced by a Montreal-based venture, helping move the iPhone maker closer to its greenhouse-gas reduction goal. Elysis, a joint venture between Rio Tinto Group and Alcoa Corp. backed by Apple, uses new technology that emits pure oxygen when producing aluminum. Apple has said in an environment report that 80% of its emissions from an iPhone 8 came during the production phase. The metal is also used in iPads, Macs and Apple watches. Rio's commercial network is handling the first delivery to Apple, a Rio spokesman said in an email. The metal being shipped to Apple was produced at the Alcoa Technical Center in Pittsburgh. "This first sale is tangible evidence of our revolutionary work to transform and disrupt the conventional smelting process by making a process that is both more efficient and more sustainable," Benjamin Kahrs, an Alcoa executive vice president and Chief Innovation Officer, said in a statement.
Elysis (Score:5, Informative)
Glad to see that Elysis is mentioned in the article. The aluminum oxide reduction process utilizing carbon-free electrodes that Alcoa and Rio Tinto have developed is laudable. Apple is just a drop in the global (> 65000 kt) primary aluminum production.
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It took a little digging to find out what they replaced the carbon electrodes with. They are cermet electrodes, ceramic metal composites, consisting of metal oxides (NiFe2O4 + NiO) and metals (Cu + Ag).
Switch to carbon (Score:1)
all alluminum is... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:all alluminum is... (Score:5, Informative)
No, it isn't. There's no carbon in the finished product, but tons of CO2 (and usually CO) are released in the standard smelting process, which uses sacrificial carbon anodes to pull the oxygen out of the alumina molecules.
they should have said... (Score:3)
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That's only in the initial smelting process, and even then nearly all western plants produce only CO as their output gas. If you've already smelted aluminum however the is no issue with CO or CO2. The biggest source of CO2 is the electrical generation side anyway. Sounds like to me that Apple is much happier using 1st generation aluminum then recycled, and there's no real difference except that recycled aluminum is about 1/2 to 3/4's the cost.
Re: all alluminum is... (Score:2)
Sounds like to me that Apple is much happier using 1st generation aluminum then recycled, and there's no real difference except that recycled aluminum is about 1/2 to 3/4's the cost.
Well, they announced in 2018 that the MacBook Air and Mac mini would be made from 100% Recycled Aluminum:
https://www.lightmetalage.com/... [lightmetalage.com]
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Then the entire thing makes no sense at all, except as a PR move.
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Why not make the electrodes out of charcoal instead of coke?
Charcoal comes from trees and every bit of CO2 that gets released was absorbed by the tree during its life. As long as you replant the tree, it's carbon neutral.
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"Charcoal comes from trees and every bit of CO2 that gets released was absorbed by the tree during its life. As long as you replant the tree, "
It's very hard to replant a tree after having made charcoal out of it.
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You plant a new one at the same location. That's what the word "replant" means.
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Why not make the electrodes out of charcoal instead of coke?
Just spit-balling here, but maybe the non-consumable (and thus very long life) cermet electrodes used are cheaper than sourcing and manufacturing charcoal carbon electrodes?
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When you 'make' Aluminium (extract it from bauxite ore) you use a lot of electricity.
That electricity could be generated by burning coal, or natural gas (thus putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere) or it could be generated by a non carbon source like nuclear or hydro.
The aluminium smelter at Bluff, in the south of The South Island of New Zealand is powered by the Lake Manapouri hydro project. Therefore its product is carbon-free..
Therefore its product is carbon-free... (Score:2)
...except for the carbon used in the anode blocks.
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the Lake Manapouri hydro project. Therefore its product is carbon-free..
I've been there. Locals objected to the sight of a power plant and dam on this pristine lake, so they built the generating plant under the lake, thousands of feet below the bottom. Instead of a dam, the project redirected the lake's former outflow, which had cascaded over the side into an adjacent fjord, down through the lakebed through the turbines and into the fjord.
Although this was NZ's largest power plant at the time it was built, for years it was not connected to the South Island grid. All of its outp
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Mod the parent 'funny' way up.So sad the responses miss the irony and sarcasm.
I also read initially "carbon-free aluminium" as one would read "carbon-free steel".
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Mod the parent 'funny' way up.So sad the responses miss the irony and sarcasm.
I also read initially "carbon-free aluminium" as one would read "carbon-free steel".
I do see the irony in carbon free steel.
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thank you (Score:2)
Carbon =/= Bad (Score:1)
There's plenty of extra carbon laying about, turning it into phones wouldn't be a bad idea.
Carbon is evil! (Score:1)
Obviously! just watch TV or read the interwebz.
Seriously though, this is actually why so many people don't care.
At all.
Really? (Score:3)
Is the correct terminology "carbon-neutral" really that hard to grasp?
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Is the correct terminology "carbon-neutral" really that hard to grasp?
Is it in fact carbon-neutral? It takes a lot of energy to refine Aluminum, and TFA doesn't claim that they're getting it from carbon-neutral sources. In fact, TFA quotes "Alf Barrios, Rio Tinto Aluminium chief executive officer" as saying "This is another important step towards zero carbon aluminum"... not "This is zero carbon aluminum".
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The plant is in Quebec, which makes so much electricity from hydro it sells it to the US and other provinces. Most aluminum smelting is done where there's cheap hydro because it uses so much electricity.
There's a good chance the production from this new plant is actually carbon free, except for the incidentals like the employees driving to work.
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The employees also breathe. And buy products which are not carbon-neutral. And have kids, who will grow up to cause additional carbon emissions.
Don't get me wrong, efficient processes are good. But pretending it's doing anything for global CO2 levels is disingenuous at best. Apple could've done much more for that goal by making their laptops out of wood. Or even just stop making new models every other year so people will use their existing laptops longer.
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Breathing is carbon neutral. Unless you have a very odd diet.
Making aluminum without carbon electrodes *is* good for reducing carbon emissions. Aluminum has a big carbon footprint, and it's fairly low hanging fruit. Apple doesn't use much aluminum, but it is a high profile customer, and generally willing to pay for the cachet of new processes (and to get Greenpeace off their back). Having a customer like that early on can make or break a new manufacturing process.
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That's not the correct terminology since they're not making a claim about the source of the electricity. They're making a claim about the chemical reaction that yields metallic aluminum [slashdot.org].
If you'd actually read the article...
What's this all about? (Score:2)
Steel (Score:1)
Call me when they figure out how to make carbon free steel.
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Call me when they figure out how to make carbon free steel.
I've got a frying pan made from carbon free steel - they call it a cast iron frying pan. It's yours for the low low price of $500!
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I've got a frying pan made from carbon free steel - they call it a cast iron frying pan. It's yours for the low low price of $500!
The joke is on you. Cast iron has more carbon than steel, with at least 2% carbon content.
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Carbon free steel isn't steel, it's grey iron.
Where's the transparent aluminum? (Score:2)
We are going to the MOON with this! (Score:2)
I finally got to see the movie The Martian and after that I had to soak up as much Andy Weir commentary off of YouTube I could find. What grabbed by attention though was his discussion of his later book Artemis. I didn't read the book (yet) but Weir talked about how the moon colony relies on aluminum refining for their oxygen supply. This book makes it clear how technologies like this carbon free aluminum refining will be necessary. Because there is no coal on the moon.
It's not like we don't know how to
Re:We are going to the MOON with this! (Score:4, Informative)
No. The new process uses electricity, just like the old one. Aluminum oxide is so tightly bound that it's not practical to thermally smelt like you would other metal ore, you have to electrolyze it.
The difference is that instead of using carbon electrodes, which soak up the oxygen and are eroded, they use something else. I don't think this would really add much energetic cost to the process (and apparently the process isn't much more expensive). The trick is, now you've got to deal with the really hot oxygen.
You're right though, this is absolutely the process you want to have on the moon because there's a lot of aluminum (and other) oxide. With this process you get oxygen to breath and aluminum to build stuff with, or rocket fuel.
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No.
No what?
The new process uses electricity, just like the old one. Aluminum oxide is so tightly bound that it's not practical to thermally smelt like you would other metal ore, you have to electrolyze it.
Of course it takes electricity, it just doesn't use electrodes made of coal to make it work.
The difference is that instead of using carbon electrodes, which soak up the oxygen and are eroded, they use something else. I don't think this would really add much energetic cost to the process (and apparently the process isn't much more expensive).
I know nothing of how this new aluminum refining process works other than it uses no carbon electrode. The reason the carbon electrode made aluminum refining possible on an industrial scale is it reduced considerably the energy required from previous processes, it did this because the coal electrode was burned in the presence of the aluminum and therefore added energy to the process. Without that coal elect
Repair what you've bought (Score:2)
No More Carbon In iPhones? (Score:2)