An LCA study of a primary aluminum supply chain

The final impact assessment results for the overall environmental loads of the supply chain showed cumulative decreases of 2.2% and 3.8% for Scenarios 2 and 3, respectively. In Scenario 2, scrap metal was reduced from the casting plant. For Scenario 3, the reduction of scrap metal from casting was accompanied by improvements of both energy efficiency and reject rates at the smelter. A significant cumulative decrease of 32.8% was obtained in Scenario 4, which was mainly due to the reduction of red mud from the refinery by about 50%.