Rio Tinto trialling of plasma torches at iron ore in CanadaSounds like us
Climate Change Report 2020 (riotinto.com) Energy & Minerals – Progress investment in renewables in Africa at both Richards Bay Minerals and QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM); evaluate renewables options at Boron; develop low-emission process heat technology
including the trialling of plasma torches at our iron ore business in Canada; develop carbon-neutral growth plans as part of the feasibility study for our Jadar lithium project in Serbia
Processing Centre of Excellence
– Plasma torch applications:
– Induration furnaces
– Ladle pre-heaters
– Aluminium casting furnaces
5 Decarbonisation strategy – a robust plan to achieve GHG targets lays out which decarbonisation levers will be used
Sub-indicator 5.1 – The company has a decarbonisation strategy to meet its long, medium and short-term GHG reduction targets (note scoring under this indicator requires scoring on targets indicators 2, 3 and/ or 4
Our decarbonisation strategy is described on pages 23-33 of our climate change report. This quantifies the main sources of Scope 1 & 2 emissions and identifies the short-, medium- and long-term actions needed to reach our ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and our 2030 targets. The report also highlights the actual and committed spend of over $140m in 2020 on mitigation projects and R&D (out of the $1bn expected for climaterelated spend over five years 2020-24). At the Group-level, the two most important decarbonisation levers between now and 2030 are: 1. To continue switching the electricity we generate and purchase to renewables, and 2. To optimise processing plants in our alumina and minerals businesses and start trialling new technologies to reduce emissions from the use of coal and natural gas for process heat. In the longer term, we will need to continue the shift to low-carbon power and decarbonise heat at our alumina refineries and minerals processing facilities.
Our Processing Centre of Excellence is particularly focused on technologies like hydrogen or plasma torches, which can use renewable energy, and which may provide a pathway to replace fossil fuels for heat and steam. We will also need to address emissions from the use of
anodes in our aluminium smelters. We established the ELYSIS partnership in 2018 with Alcoa and with support from Apple and the governments of Canada and Quebec to develop the world’s first carbon-free aluminium smelting process, using inert anodes instead of carbon. Pages 35-45 of our climate change report quantifies the main categories of scope 3 emissions and explains our goals to work in partnerships across our value chain to reduce the carbon footprint.
Special Focus Quebec: Solution providers to the aluminium value chain (alcircle.com) May 2018
PyroGenesis Canada Inc. is a world-renowned high-tech company based out of Montreal operating in the field of high temperature processing of materials and waste, which counts the US Navy and the US Air Force amongst its discerning client base.
PyroGenesis' DROSRITE system is a salt-free, cost-effective process for maximizing aluminium recovery from dross, a waste generated in the smelting, processing and recycling process. DROSRITE is a patented process that can cut down on loss of expensive metal and reduce a smelter's carbon footprint and energy consumption through their sustainable process. The process offers substantial ROI to metal manufacturers.
The company is currently speaking with a few major aluminum industry players across India, from automotive parts manufacturers to primary & secondary aluminum smelters. Furthermore, their small-scale demonstrational DROSRITE unit is currently running paid trials, backlogged in India until September.