# [[Turn Alumina By Products to Value]] ## The Insight - X tonnes of bauxite residue (BR) are created as a by product of the alumina production process - Currently companies like [[Alcoa]] are creating [[Sustainable Refining]] methods to convert this waste into low carbon cement / soil like substances - There are existing projects trying to make this happen eg. Reactiv, which focuses on creating a novel sustainable symbiotic value chain, linking the by-product of the alumina production industry and the cement production industry.^[https://reactivproject.eu/]. BR samples are being analysed and used to develop the novel ReActiv technologies for transforming BR into Supplementary Cementitious Material (SCM) ![[Pasted image 20210701005502.png]] ### The Idea - Selling bauxite residue to large-scale cement and infrastructure companies, to be used in road networks globally - Creating sustainable building materials from BR - Using BR as a soil conditioner for the agriculture industry^[https://www.hydro.com/en-GB/media/news/2020/research-on-bauxite-residue-re-use-wins-international-award/] - Neutralising BR alkalinity allow its safe application as a soil conditioner for improving fertility in acidic tropical soils, e.g. Brazil - Extracting critical raw materials (CRMs) and rare-earth materials (REEs) which face the risk of supply shortages #### Hypothesis to disprove - It is not economically or financially viable to use alumina by-products, and BR in particular - So far, due to investment and operational costs, strategies to use BR have been deemed (financially) unfeasible - Yet, extracting CRM in itself brings monetary value which would be roughly equal to the cost of extraction, as well as further economic and social benefits (waste reduction, preventing dam failure from storing red mud, etc.)^[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6100093/pdf/JCTB-93-2498.pdf] - The use of BR will cause serious human health impacts - Some bauzite residues may emit ionising radiation due to the presence of naturally occuring radioactive materials - The enviornmental costs (CO2e) of extracting CRM from BR outweigh the enviornmental costs of primary mining #### Potential Scenarios - If we eliminate X tonne BR, this would save x in storage cost - If we substite BR for X tonnes of cement or asphalt that saves X tonnes of CO2e - Reducing X tonnes of CO2e from conventional primary mining - Using BR as soil conditioner can make soil X times more fertile #### [[Linchpins]] - [[Waste regulation]] ---- Tags: #ideathesis #wip #kp #pn Links: [[Idea Thesis]]