scaleup the process This research center will be housing the ne xt generation cells with the objective to demonstrate the technology at commercial scale The goal is to bring it to commercial size by 2024 170 The application of inert anodes in EU primary aluminium production would reduce most of its direct emissions 171 This technology would have the single biggest impact to further GHG reductions in the aluminium and nonferrous metals production by reducing overall nonfer rous direct emissions by more than 20 compared to 2015 levels Furthermore most inert anode technologies promise important energy savings in particular lower electricity consumption However this must still be proven in practice given one of the challenges with inert technology is higher electricity consumption as thermodynamic cell voltage is consid erably higher than for the classic HallH e roult process Ne xt to efciency improvements in the electrolysis process and shift to inert anodes there are also other more radical process innovations being investigated for primary aluminium production One such radical shift would be low close to room temperature electrolysis using ionic liquids would could replace the current HallH e roult process and lead to important energy savings 30 to 85 due to lower temperatures and higher bauxitetoalumina conversion 172 This process is still only at the R D phase and the process has several substantial difculties to overcome TRL is hence still low at 12 and it is more lik ely this process will not be useful for large scale aluminium production and rather be applied to electroplating processes 173 The electrolysis process could also be replaced by the carbothermic reduction of alumina In this process not dissimilar to current hot iron production alumina reacts with carbon at high temperatures 2000 C to form aluminium and CO It would be 2030 more efcient compared to electrolysisbased aluminium production and have lower 50 capital costs The technology has been tested up to pilot scale by Alcoa and Elk em but further devel opment has stalled TRL 45 174175 Furthermore the technology would still emit substantial amounts of CO 2 which will have to be mitigated through e g CCS leading to additional capital and operational costs It is in theory also possible to produce aluminium from k aolin which is an aluminasilicate clay currently used in the production of some ceramics products Europe but also China 170 Elysis 171 3 7 Mt CO 2 eq reductions due to avoided CO 2 emissions in consumption of carbon anodes and PFC emissions Source EEA 2019 2015 emissions data and around 0 7 Mt CO 2 from the production of carbon anodes Ecofys 2009a references corrected for 2015 production 172 Given that it can be used in the recovery of aluminium from bauxite residue T am et al 2016 R ecovery of aluminium from bauxite residue dissolution and electrowinning of aluminium using pyrrolidinium ionic liquid 173 Fraunhofer ISI 2019 174 Ibidem 175 Bruno M J 2014 eliminate the production of direct CO 2 emissions due to the consumption of the anode during the aluminium production process In theory these inert anodes would come with important other benefts This includes in theory reductions in the cost of production and replacement of the consumable carbon anodes overall lower capital costs visavis carbon anodes 10 to 30 improved plant efciency by eliminating the need to regularly replace the anodes elimination of PFC emissions and o xygen production that can be valorised as possible byproduct Energy savings of 3 to 4 compared to e xisting electrolysis processes are e xpected however still uncertain 165 Inert anodes have not reached the demonstration stage and their TRL is estimated at 5 166 167 W ettable inert e g titanium diboride TiB2 composite cathodes improve energy efciency 20 energy use by means of providing a geometrical stable cathode surface They would also e xtend the life of cells and reducing the amount of to xic waste 168 Multipolar cells with inert anodes would improve the e xisting process by allowing multiple anode cathode pairs in same cell compared to only one horizontal cathode now This would mak e energy savings of around 40 possible through lower operating temperatures around 700C higher current densities better control of heat losses and improved circu lation of the electrolyte 169 It is not known if multipolar cells can be applied to the current HallHeroult process with fuoridebased electrolytes In the chloride process mentioned before they have been used at industrial scale BO X 9 Elysis AlcoaRio Tinto Currently the frontrunner in developing inert anodesbased aluminium production is Elysis a partnership of two major aluminium producers Alcoa and Rio Tinto Elysis was established in 2018 The Canadian Government and the Quebec Government through participation of Investissement Quebec each are investing 60million C AD in Elysis T echnology company Apple an important consumer of aluminium has helped facilitate the collaboration between Alcoa and Rio Tinto on the carbonfree smelting process and in addition to investing 13 million C AD has agreed to provide the project with technical support The technology was successfully demonstrated and has been producing metal at the Alcoa T echnical Center near Pittsburgh in the United S tates since 2009 In the second half of 2020 Elysis will open a research and development center in Saguenay Quebec to further 165 Inert anodes e xhibit higher theoretical levels of energy consumption than carbon anodes 9 16 k Whk g Al This is because inert anodes cannot utilise the chemical energy stored in carbon See Solheim 2018 pp 12531260 166 Fraunhofer ISI 2019 167 A research project A GRAL under the EU SIL C II programme did advance in fnding materials and processes suitab le for replacing carbon anodes The project was not followed up with further industrial testing or piloting Cordis 2019 168 IEA 2018 Fraunhofer ISI 2019 And ARP AE 2017 169 Fraunhofer ISI 2019 MET ALS IN A CLIMA TE NEUTRAL EUROPE A 2050 BL UEPRINT 54