Indian aluminum firm to try energy-saving tech

Lund, Sweden's Alfa Laval (STO:ALFA) has said it recently received orders worth 150 Swedish krona ($22 million USD) for thermal evaporation systems from India's Vedanta Aluminum, an arm of Vedanta Resources (LON:VED).

The three systems are expected to be delivered next year.

Roughly 3 percent of the electricity generated worldwide goes to aluminum production, in part due to the high temperatures needed, according to research firm Worldwatch Institute.

The industry has been working to develop energy-saving technologies. According to the International Aluminum Institute, producing a one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of aluminum from alumina currently requires 15.7 kilowatt hours of electricity, down from 21 kWh needed to produce the same amount of aluminum 50 years ago.

Aluminum production is a two-step process that involves extracting aluminum oxide or alumina from bauxite using caustic soda and then refining the product into pure aluminum. Refining requires a liquid bath heated to 1,000 degrees Celsius to extract the aluminum from alumina.

Alfa Laval estimates its plate heat exchangers involved in thermal transfer processes could save energy and lower operational costs by as much as 30 percent.

"In this case, caustic is recycled back to the main process after concentration by thermal evaporation, caustic that would otherwise would have been wasted," Alfa Laval president and CEO Lars Renström said in a release.

Placing the order is part of Vedanta Aluminum's expansion plan. The company is one of the top three aluminum suppliers in India.

To achieve this goal, the metals and mining company is in the process of investing nearly $10 billion to increase aluminum-smelting capacity.

In June, Alfa Laval announced that it became a minority stakeholder in fellow Swedish company Ageratec, which is developing a system to reduce water consumption in biodiesel processing (see Rubber, water and waste get investor interest).