Alcoa reports agreement on demonstration of Elysis smelting technology

Alcoa Corporation (AA) announced further progress on ELYSIS technology with Rio Tinto’s (RIO) plans to launch the first industrial-scale demonstration of the breakthrough technology, which eliminates all greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional smelting process and produces oxygen as a byproduct. Alcoa has the right to purchase up to 40% of the metal produced from the demonstration at Arvida, allowing for Alcoa customers to benefit from ELYSIS’s carbon-free electrolytic process early in the technology development cycle. The target for first production is by 2027. “Since inventing the aluminum smelting process in 1886, which is still in use today, Alcoa has continued to create transformational technologies to improve our industry,” said William F. Oplinger, President and CEO of Alcoa Corporation. “We are proud to progress the technology initially developed at our technical center to its next phase within the ELYSIS partnership. Aluminum plays a critical role in the world’s energy transition and decarbonization efforts; with the ELYSIS technology, the smelting of this important metal can also be done without direct carbon emissions.”