[Click on image to enlarge]
Slide 1
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is David Moore and I am with Alcan Inc. at their Detroit facilities where our interest is in providing our customers — the automakers — with lightweight aluminum solutions for their vehicles.
My goal today is essentially to make you aware of two facts: one is that the use of aluminum in cars is expanding rapidly — as illustrated by my cover photo, the all-aluminum Audi A2 now being produced in Europe. I'll say more about that later.
And the second, more relevant fact for this audience, is that the use of aluminum for vehicle lightweighting can deliver a substantial reduction in CO2 and other emissions over the life of the car through fuel savings, even allowing for the CO2 generated by the initial production of aluminum.
Slide 2
So, in my talk today, I want to cover what is actually happening in the auto industry with respect to aluminum: its current uses and product forms, its market growth, and some idea of its future applications.
Then I'll briefly describe the production of aluminum and its environmental impact — the "burden".
And finally, I will explain the environmental benefits, the pluses if you will, of using aluminum in automobiles. I will show you three worked examples of how the use of aluminum results in a benefit in terms of environmental impact.
Slide 3
First, let me start with an overview of the automotive market for aluminum.
Slide 4
In the Western World today, transportation is the largest and fastest growing aluminum market sector. Western World shipments to the transportation market totaled 8.4 million metric tons last year. This includes all applications of aluminum for marine, ground and air transport.
Within this overall market, the light vehicle market — that is, cars and light trucks for personal transportation, the focus of my talk today — accounts for close to two-thirds of the volume.
Over the past ten years, the Compound Annual Growth Rate for the light vehicle market has been 8.4% — significantly higher than the remainder of the transportation market, itself growing at a healthy 4.7%.
Slide 5
Forty years ago the average North American and European vehicle contained only 20 to 25 kilograms of aluminium ... By 1999, it was nearly five times that amount at 100 kilograms or better.
Predictions vary on how high it will climb from here, but our best forecast at this point is that, by 2009, the market will reach an average of 150 kilograms per vehicle in Europe and 156 kilograms in North America.
Castings — the number one product form of automotive aluminum — will continue to lead the way in both regions, but we will see strong growth, indeed double-digit growth, in such areas as sheet, extrusions and other product forms.
Slide 6
Looking at the leading markets for automotive aluminum, we can see that North America leads with 2.3 million tons, followed by Europe at 1.8, and Japan and Korea at 1.1 The emerging markets of South America, India, Eastern Europe, Russia, and China account for a combined 0.6 million tons.
What I want to draw your attention to here is the fact that almost two-thirds of the 5.8 million tons is secondary aluminum, illustrating the important role of recycling in the automotive aluminum market.
Slide 7
This is will give you some idea of where aluminum is being used today.
It's well established in engine parts and drive train components, primarily in the form of castings.
Application of chassis and suspension components are also on the rise,
As are aluminum body structures and exterior body panels.
Slide 8
Aluminum is provided in several forms to make these parts: castings, extrusions, sheet, foil, wire, forgings and even powder. All find application in today's vehicles. Here are some examples…
Rolled products or sheet is used in areas such as body panels, radiators and heat shields.
Cast products are the most extensively used form of aluminum at the moment — for cylinder heads, engine blocks, drive train housings, and some suspension parts.
Extruded parts for structural members, safety parts such as bumpers and door beams, engine cradles, seat and suspension parts.
Finally, ingot products are supplied mainly for castings — these can be primary smelter metal or recycled secondary metal , the latter mainly from a previous generation of cars.
Slide 9
As I mentioned, one of the growing applications will be body panels, notably hoods, or bonnets, if you prefer. Aluminum hoods have proven they can deliver cost-effective, weight reduction in the front end of the vehicle.
At half the weight of a traditional steel hood, an aluminum hood can save about 10 kilograms in a typical full size sedan.
Slide 10
But the market for body panels is not limited to hoods...
In North America, one of the leaders in the use of aluminum exterior body panels is the Lincoln LS luxury sedan, which features an aluminum hood, deck lid and front fenders, accounting for 40% of the car's metal surface area.
In fact, this car contains up to 205 kilograms of aluminum, with the closures accounting for 10% of that content.
Slide 11
Another success story is the aluminum liftgate available on the the GMC Yukon, the Chevy Suburban and the Tahoe.
This is the result of a joint project between GM and Alcan that resulted in the first aluminum liftgate designed and built in North America; the first deep-drawn, high-volume application; and the first spot welded, high-volume assembly in the North American industry. GM is currently producing this liftgate at a rate of more than 10,000 per week.
This lightweight liftgate allowed GM to add a 3rd row of seats in these large vehicles, without having to develop a new rear axle. At the same time, it also delivers consumer benefits in the form of a lighter, easier-to-open liftgate.
Slide 12
Another growing market is suspension parts, such as the Audi control arms shown here, where aluminum's combination of low weight and high strength is highly valued.
Going forward, this market will be shared by both casting and forging technologies.
Slide 13
In the area of cast products, which as I said is the largest user of aluminum in the automobile today, we will continue to see strong growth.
This is a well-established market, making extensive use of aluminum in various engine and transmission parts.
Slide 14
Perhaps the greatest opportunity for automotive aluminum lies in the structure of the car itself.
There are a number of aluminum-structured vehicles already in production today, a few of which are represented on this slide:
- The Honda Insight hybrid electric vehicle now on sale in the US and Canada…
- The Audi A8, with its 5-star safety rating…
- Another Audi vehicle, the A2, currently available only in Europe...
- As well as several high-performance vehicles such as the Ferrari Modena.
These structures save up to 50% weight over steel, and are proven to be very stiff and safe. Additionally, and I note this for the worked examples to be shown later, these structures could have an extended life well beyond what we expect today, given aluminum's excellent corrosion resistance.
Slide 15
The most recent aluminum-structured vehicle in production is the Audi A2, currently being produced at a rate of 50-60,000 units per annum for the European market.
Thanks to its lightweight construction and advanced diesel engine option, in a recent road test the A2 achieved an average fuel consumption of 2.64 litres per 100 km. That's more than 4,500 kilometers on about 120 litres of fuel, or nearly 90 mpg!
Slide 16
Looking into the future, we will see all of the various applications of aluminum that I have shown you today appearing in our vehicles.
The cars seen here on this slide were all produced as part of a joint industry and government program in the U.S. called the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, created to lead the way to the development of safe, highly fuel efficient family sedans.
The latest three vehicles produced under this program by Ford, GM and Daimler Chrysler all depend on aluminum — in the Ford and GM cases, for virtually the entire structure — inside and out.
Slide 17
Now that I've given you an idea of the applications and opportunities for aluminum, let's take a look at its environmental impact — from a full lifecycle perspective.
Slide 18
Aluminum is produced first by the chemical refinement of bauxite, impure alumina, to pure alumina. Four tons of bauxite give 2 tons of alumina — eventually producing 1 ton of aluminum.
The pure alumina is reduced by molten salt electrolysis, using a fluoride salt to form a molten bath with the alumina. Carbon anodes are consumed in the process causing the emission of CO2, but there are also some emissions of perfluorocarbon (PFC) gases such as CF4 and C2F6 caused by process excursions. There has been significant improvements in control of the electrolytic process in recent years, still continuing, which has resulted in a 47% reduction in PFC emissions between 1990 and 1997. While the total amount emitted is small, these gases have many times the effect of CO2 as greenhouse gases.
Of the electricity consumed by the aluminum industry in smelting, over 50% is hydro generated. It is the other generation of power which is the other major source of greenhouse gases. Primary aluminum supply will be able to meet all automotive customer needs with the power mix for smelting projected to be 56% hydro, 31% coal, 8% natural gas and 5% other in 2004 and beyond — virtually unchanged from today.
The bottom line is that the overall worldwide average emissions are 14.3kg of CO2 equivalents per kg of aluminum for primary smelter metal.
…..BUT
Slide 19
Another of aluminum's valuable environmental benefits is its unique recyclability. In many of its product applications, studies have shown that aluminum has exceptional performance with respect to other materials when the life cycle effects of recycling are taken into account.
An important key to this is the energy savings associated with aluminum recycling. As this slide shows, the energy required to recycle the metal is only 5% of that used to produce aluminum from raw materials.
Most of the energy used to produce primary aluminum is electrical energy for the smelting process, which, in effect is an environmental investment. The energy is embedded in the metal and therefore available to used over and over again, which is why we call aluminum the "Energy Bank."
And not only does recycling reduce energy consumption, it also saves 95% of the greenhouse gases associated with primary production.
Slide 20
Having obtained our base aluminum, whether primary or recycled, we need to add in the emissions arising from conversion to its final state — sheet, castings or extrusions.
These are indicated here, as follows:
For sheet, we add only 0.8kg CO2 equivalents per kg to the 14.3 we started with to give 15.1. — I should mention here that, for the sake of brevity, my slides will all read CO2, but what I am really talking about are CO2 equivalents.
For secondary sheet we also add 0.8 kg of CO2 equivalents, but to just 0.7kg of CO2 equivalents that recycled metal emits, totaling only 1.5 kg per kg of aluminum.
Similarly for extrusions and castings
Here, then, is the real bottom line. Taking into account the typical mix of sheet castings and extrusions for today's cars AND today's mix of primary and secondary, we arrive at 7.18 kg of CO2 equivalents per kg of aluminum.
Slide 21
And now, in the final portion of my talk, let me bring all of this data to a conclusion in order to explain the environmental benefits, the pluses if you will, of using aluminum in automobiles.
Slide 22
Having shown how much CO2 equivalent is on the debit side, so to speak, for aluminum, now let us consider the credit side — the benefits of its use.
First of all — how much weight does aluminum in the car save?
Here we see some examples of specific weight savings.
Overall, the weight savings achieved are around 50% versus iron and steel. Or in other words, 1 kg of aluminum can replace about 2 kg of steel or iron in most automotive applications.
Slide 23
How does this weight saving translate into fuel savings?
The consensus from the auto industry is that every 10% weight saved yields 5 to 10% fuel savings — without compromising size or safety, and while providing improvements in driving performance and end-of-life value.
For the purpose of the calculations to follow on the next few slides, let's call it a 7% fuel savings, which we believe is very conservative by the way.
The actual figure we use is 0.46 liters per 100kg mass saved per 100km traveled (or .000046 liters per kg per km)
For every litre of fuel saved we take the, I think, reasonable figure of 2.85 kg of CO2 per litre of fuel.
Before I get into my worked examples, it is worth noting that, through all the many steps in these assessments, assumptions have to be made. I have put together a list of all these assumptions in the paper handout — I encourage you to analyze them and come up with your own conclusions on the overall benefits that I am claiming. Put your own assumptions in. I guarantee that you will show a sizeable CO2 credit at the end of the car's life
Slide 24
So, now we get to the fun part, where we take all of the preceding and work on three cases.
The first one is for today's typical car in North America:
- It contains 113 kg of aluminum, replacing some 226 kg of iron and steel.
- The environmental "burden" for the aluminum is 811 kg of CO2 equivalents. (113x7.18)
- The CO2 emissions from 226 kg of ferrous would be 407 kg. (226x1.8)
- The net "burden" for aluminum is 404 kg CO2 equivalents. (811-407)
- Fuel saved for 113 kg weight saved would be 1004 litres (113x0.000046x193000) over the 12 year 193,000 km life.
- CO2 savings from this fuel saving is 2861 kg (1004x2.85)
- Net benefit over the life of the car 2457 kg CO2 equ. (2861 - 404)
- Crossover time to zero net CO2 is about 20 months
I have plotted this all here assuming linear annual mileage accumulation.
Slide 25
The next example — Case 2 — Here we are looking, actually at the GM Olds Aurora with 204 kg (450lbs.) of aluminum.
The same process as before — in this case, more aluminum simply means a bigger deficit on day 1, but also a bigger "credit" by the nominal end of life — some 4433 kg of CO2 equivalents savings in this case compared to the all-ferrous version.
So this could be looked at as "the more aluminum substitution, the greater the CO2 credit." The crossover in this case is the same at 20 months.
- 204 kg of aluminum content, replacing some 408 kg of iron and steel
- The "burden" for the aluminum is 1465 kg of CO2 equ.(204x7.18)
- The CO2 emissions from 408 kg of ferrous would be 734 kg (408x1.8)
- The net "burden" for aluminum is 731 kg CO2 equivalents (1465-734)
- Fuel saved for 204 kg weight saved would be 1812 litres (204x0.000046x193000) over the 12 year 193,000 km life.
- CO2 savings from this fuel saving is 5164 kg (1812x2.85)
- Net benefit over the life of the car 4433 kg CO2 equivalents (5164 - 731)
Slide 26
Case 3 is somewhat different.
Here, we are considering what we would call a full AIV — an aluminum intensive vehicle, where all of the structure and all of the skin is aluminum.
Obviously there is now even more aluminum, 340 kg (748 lbs) but now we assume that the weight savings are a little less (only 45% for the structure) and that the structure material is all primary not secondary. Rather than 40% prime.
This simply reflects the fact that there would not be enough scrap available at least until these vehicles start coming around for recycling — 12 , maybe 15, maybe more years later.
In this case, the lifetime "credit" is even higher at nearly 5000 kg, 5 tonnes.
And would be higher with a longer lifetime.
So, in this case, the CO2 debit is 3946 kg (190x15.1)+(150x7.18)
Take away 1162 kg CO2 for the 645 kg of ferrous replaced (645x1.80) = 2784kg
Fuel saved over 12 years = 2713 litres (645-340)x0.000046x193100
CO2 saving from fuel saving 7733 kg (2713 x2.85)
Net "credit" is 4949 kg CO2 ( 7733-2784)
Time to "CO2 net zero" = 52 months or 70,000 km (43,000 miles) of driving.
Slide 27
Hopefully, I have illustrated for you the merits of lightweighting with aluminum, but just before I wrap up my presentation, I'd like to show you a new emerging technology that will enhance the recyclability of automotive aluminum.
This new technology is called "LIBS"— laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy — and it is being developed to allow separation of aluminum shreds by alloy.
Already today 95% of automotive aluminum is recovered by disassembly or by separating aluminum shreds. But most of that recovered metal goes back into castings and is somewhat downgraded.
This new technology will allow full closed-loop recycling of the wrought alloys — that is to recycle them back into the same products from which they came, as we do today with aluminum beverage cans.
The idea involves shredding as per normal, followed by shred shape recognition and laser OES of each shred such that it can be diverted into the appropriate bin.
LIBS is being developed by Huron Valley Steel in Detroit with support from the Auto Aluminum Alliance — an alliance of automakers and aluminum companies.
To see the benefit of this … If we now put 60% recycle into the AIV in the Case 3 example we just saw, we would increase the CO2 "credit" per car to 6454 kg and reduce the "crossover" to just 20 months.
Slide 28
The conclusions, then;
Aluminum can replace iron and steel in automobiles with weight savings of 45 to 50% with gains in performance and no loss of safety.
Fuel savings deriving from the weight saving balance the net CO2 emissions typically within the first few years of vehicle service. And, over the life of the vehicle, a substantial CO2 "credit" is created.
The advent of alloy sorting from end-of-life vehicles will lead to closed-loop recycling of auto aluminum and even greater environmental gains from the use of aluminum in vehicle construction.
And lest you think that this is just an aluminum industry sales pitch, let me assure you that we are not the only ones that recognize the valuable contribution that aluminum can make...
Slide 29
Will Boddie, VP Research & Vehicle Technology for Ford Motor Company, recently stated ...
"High-volume application of lightweight materials, including aluminum, is a key to increasing fuel economy and decreasing emissions to address global environmental concerns."
I thank you for your time and attention.
Français
© 2008 Alcan Inc. Legal Disclaimer | Privacy Statement 
