Plume of Foam in Bauxite Waste From Aluminum Refinery

Burnside, Louisiana, USA

Producing aluminum metal involves refining bauxite (the ore), using caustic chemicals and tremendous amounts of electricity to produce alumina, as well as the electrolytic reduction of alumina to produce aluminum. This depicts the disposal of the byproducts, in which the solids (mostly impurities in the bauxite) are separated from the liquids. During primary aluminum production, PFCs (CF4 and C2F6) are emitted as byproducts of the smelting process, both significant greenhouse gases.

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