Arctial drops on-site anode production at planned aluminium plant

Arctial will buy carbon anodes from abroad instead of producing them at its planned aluminium plant on the border of Kokkola and Kruunupyy, reducing the facility’s local emissions, Yle reports. The company has not yet chosen a supplier.

The change is expected to reduce air pollution, water use and hazardous waste at the plant. It will also slightly lower electricity consumption and reduce the need for natural gas used to provide heat for anode production.

The plant would use 330,000 tonnes of anodes a year. These carbon blocks are used in aluminium production and are gradually consumed during the process. Arctial says emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons would almost entirely be eliminated locally, while nitrogen oxide and hydrogen fluoride emissions would also fall significantly.

The plant’s carbon footprint would be smaller, but the overall climate impact will depend on how efficiently and cleanly the anodes are made abroad. Arctial has not decided where to source them. Most anodes used by the aluminium industry are produced in China.

Local anode production remained among the alternatives considered in the environmental impact assessment, which concluded in early October. Arctial says it had decided months earlier to buy the anodes, but kept production in the assessment because it was initially a realistic option and the process needed to examine different possibilities.

Arctial local manager Jöran Sopo said the decision was based on financial, technical and environmental considerations. Specialist companies can generally make anodes more efficiently and cheaply, and producing them on site would have required substantial space.

Dropping local production could simplify the plant’s permit process, Sopo said. He added that the change would have little effect on the total investment or workforce because the process would have been highly automated, and workers would still be needed to handle and recycle the anodes and maintain equipment.

The planned plant’s investment is valued at 4.7 billion euros. Once operational, it is expected to employ 1,200 people.