Hydro and Rio Tinto are an aluminium and renewable energy company and they have arranged a collaboration, with the intention of identifying and evaluating available carbon capture technologies. They are specifically looking for technologies which could play a role in the aluminium electrolysis process, at some point in the future.

So far a partnership agreement has been signed and this agreement will allow the companies to share certain information, results and finally details around costs covering specific R&D activities from lab tests. These lab tests have been conducted with external supplies, along with larger, on-site pilots. The overall aim of conducting these tests, is to create an improved offering of commercially viable carbon capture technologies from relevant suppliers.

Both companies have said that they have an expectation of investing roughly USD 45 million during a five year period, in order to support this initiative. The majority of the work for this project will be carried out at Hydro’s facilities based in Norway and Rio Tinto’s facilities located in Europe. Once this partnership is completed, both companies will individually continue to pursue substantial decarbonisation efforts.

Conducting this project is significant and important within this industry, as right now, anode consumption during the electrolysis process makes up an estimated three quarters of the CO2 emissions produced by smelters. Due to this pressing issue, for several years now, these two companies, Hydro and Rio Tinto have been focused on evaluating different carbon capture technologies, in order to determine which technologies would be a suitable solution for helping each company meet their targets.

Another aim for both of the companies is to accelerate the development process for technology, which would help to abate greenhouse gas emissions from smelters. Currently, completing the process of capturing carbon from aluminium smelter flue gas, requires the adaptation of direct air capture technologies for either higher concentrations or point source technologies for lower concentrations. This is because aluminium smelter flue gas has a CO2 concentration of around 1% (vol.). Both of these technologies are currently not ready and they require a large amount of development so that they can mature from laboratory to commercial scale.

Hydro President and CEO, Eivind Kallevik, “Hydro is accelerating our ambitious roadmap to achieve net-zero aluminium production by 2050 or sooner, advancing solutions across every step of our value chain, from mine to metal. Carbon capture technologies are critical to decarbonizing existing smelters. Our partnership with Rio Tinto will amplify efforts to develop fit for purpose solutions that can accelerate the aluminium industry's transition towards net-zero production.”

Rio Tinto Chief Executive, Jakob Stausholm, commented, “Rio Tinto’s is committed to reaching net-zero emissions from our operations by 2050, and we know that achieving our climate objectives will require a portfolio of solutions. By working in partnership with Hydro to assess certain carbon capture technologies for aluminium smelters, we are finding better ways to leverage our complementary networks and R&D capabilities to address the climate change challenge.”