This month, Alcoa was mentioned in Apple’s Environmental Progress Report for the work taking place to advance the production of carbon-free aluminum through our ELYSISTM joint venture with Rio Tinto and the government of Quebec in Canada.
While the R&D work continues to ramp up, Apple purchased a batch of the ELYSISTM aluminum, produced outside Pittsburgh at Alcoa’s Technical Center. Apple has provided technical support and invested in the JV’s work.
In its report, Apple writes: “In December 2019, we announced we had bought the first-ever commercial batch of carbon-free aluminum resulting from this joint venture. This aluminum is currently in production for use with the 16-inch MacBook Pro.”
Alcoa developed the process to produce aluminum without any direct carbon dioxide emissions, eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the traditional smelting process, replacing those emissions with oxygen. That technology became the basis for the formation of the ELYSISTM joint venture in 2018.
ELYSISTM is now working to ramp-up that technological break-through to commercial scale by 2024 and sell technology licenses for either retrofits of existing smelters or the construction of new ones.