Primary aluminium, liquid, tapped from the pots

Activity Primary aluminium by Hall-Heroult electrolysis with point-feed prebaked anodes, RER: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedaluminium-1:aluminium-prebake-electrolysis:product:aluminiumPreliminaryReport a problem with this dataset

Research outputAn inventory from a research design at the design maturity its process states, not verified plant data: check its calculation maturity and review status before use. Background activities are referenced by name only; no background data is included. All caveats

What it is

Per 1 t of liquid primary aluminium tapped from the pots, gate-to-gate, EU point-feed prebake (PFPB) smelters of the NFM BREF data collection. Alumina, net anode, aluminium fluoride and electricity as midpoints of sourced ranges; process CO2 and SO2 from the anode by an IPCC Tier 2 type mass balance; CF4 and C2F6 by the IPCC Tier 2 slope method with the BREF's anode effect performance.

Reference product: 1 kilogram of Primary aluminium, liquid, tapped from the pots
Chemical: aluminium
CAS: 7429-90-5
Code: aluminium-1:aluminium-prebake-electrolysis:product:aluminium
Dataset: aluminium-prebake-electrolysis version 0.1.0 · UUID 56fb57de-67e8-59a3-8b8d-01b55701f56f
Activity UUID: not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database: cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4 (version preview-a3c52e4)
Process: Primary aluminium by Hall-Heroult electrolysis with point-feed prebaked anodes
Geography: RER · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period: 2005 · valid until 2017
Technology: point-feed prebake cells (PFPB, about 90 % of EU capacity in the BREF); Soederberg cells and the anode baking plant are not modelled · level current
Boundary: gate-to-gate: potline electrolysis (cells, rectifiers, auxiliaries) and the dry alumina scrubber of the cell gases, up to the tapped liquid metal; prebaked anodes, alumina and aluminium fluoride bought in; anode plant and casthouse outside
Classification: ISIC Rev.4 2420 (taxonomy/families.yaml (ISIC Rev.4) of the process's families)
System model: attributional, cut-off (docs/system-model.md, methodology 1.1.0)
Allocation: mass, 100 % of the dataset to this product (rule single-output, from default)
one product: nothing to allocate
Rights: CC-BY-4.0

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Primary aluminium, liquid, tapped from the pots

As exported: allocated and scaled to the reference product. Provenance: 8 given, 5 calculated, 1 assumed. Pedigree scores (1 best, 5 worst): reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation, further technological correlation.

Preliminary5 exchanges are not yet linked to a background dataset. They count no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.

Input	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree	Linked to
Alumina, smelter grade feed:alumina EU JRC (2017) NFM BREF, EUR 28648 EN, doi:10.2760/8224, Table 4.9, p. 398; counted as Al2O3 in the element balance (its moisture and impurities are in the residual output)	1.935	kilogram	given	3 4 5 3 3	Atlas (pinned): Alumina by the Bayer process (3000 t/d smelter-grade alumina, concept) (Aluminium oxide, Smelter-grade alumina to storage, GLO) compatible: grade the input names aluminium-oxide only; aluminium-oxide (Aluminium oxide, Smelter-grade alumina to storage) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation none (single-output); boundary plant gate (pinned): no distribution or losses; the consumer's dataset counts its delivery
Prebaked carbon anode, net consumption feed:anode EU JRC (2017) NFM BREF, EUR 28648 EN, doi:10.2760/8224, Table 4.9, p. 398; modelled as C130S (2.01 wt% S, IPCC Table 4.11 default; ash counted as carbon, ASSUMED)	0.43	kilogram	given	3 4 5 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (chemical 'prebaked-anode'); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Aluminium fluoride (bath make-up) feed:aluminium-fluoride EU JRC (2017) NFM BREF, EUR 28648 EN, doi:10.2760/8224, Table 4.9, p. 398; outside the element balance (the fluorine balance is not closed, see system_boundary)	0.0215	kilogram	given	3 4 5 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (chemical 'aluminium-fluoride'); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Electricity, potline total (AC, with rectifier losses and auxiliaries) feed:electricity EU JRC (2017) NFM BREF, EUR 28648 EN, doi:10.2760/8224, Table 4.9 and note (3), p. 398 electricity	14.65	kilowatt hour	given	3 4 5 3 3	market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Alumina not reduced to metal (moisture, impurities, handling and scrubber losses) output:alumina-residual ASSUMED: closes the aluminium balance; it is the feed above the stoichiometric 1889 kg/t less the dust. The source does not say where it goes (part is moisture and impurities of the alumina, part ends in skimmings, spent lining and site wastes)	0.04442	kilogram	assumed	4 4 4 4 4	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Spent pot lining (carbon and refractory cuts), hazardous waste output:spent-pot-lining EU JRC (2017) NFM BREF, EUR 28648 EN, doi:10.2760/8224, 4.2.3.4.1, p. 407; outside the element balance (carbon, fluorides, sodium, refractories; the lining input is not counted, see system_boundary)	0.035	kilogram	given	3 4 5 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Water discharged (cooling water and run-off) to treatment output:wastewater EU JRC (2017) NFM BREF, EUR 28648 EN, doi:10.2760/8224, 4.2.3.3, p. 406 (about 1 m3/t for modern smelters with dry scrubbers); outside the element balance (its intake is not stated, see system_boundary)	1	kilogram	given	4 4 4 4 4	Atlas (plant): wastewater to treatment, per kg (Atlas unit proxy) (wastewater, by mass, GLO) compatible: grade the input names wastewater only; wastewater (Wastewater treated) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)

Elementary flows

Flow	Direction	Compartment	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree
Carbon dioxide, fossil 349b29d1-3e58-4c66-98b9-9d1a076efd2e	emission	air	1.544	kilogram	calculated	3 4 5 3 3
Sulfur dioxide fd7aa71c-508c-480d-81a6-8052aad92646	emission	air	0.01729	kilogram	calculated	4 4 4 4 4
Methane, tetrafluoro-, R-14 33681770-a0e1-4ce8-93c3-941fd607fa5f	emission	air	5.363e-5	kilogram	calculated	4 4 5 3 3
Ethane, hexafluoro-, HFC-116 acc39720-dda7-4b3a-80c7-c6394cad4191	emission	air	6.489e-6	kilogram	calculated	4 4 5 3 3
Hydrogen fluoride 24541c8c-9f11-49ae-9de5-456f238a3f5e	emission	air	6.318e-4	kilogram	calculated	3 4 5 3 3
Nitrogen oxides c1b91234-6f24-417b-8309-46111d09c457	emission	air	1.5e-4	kilogram	given	3 5 5 3 3
Dust (alumina and bath material), stack and roof; size not stated emission:dust unlinked unlinked, no biosphere mapping: emission of dust (literature) has no biosphere3 flow identity and is not in lci/mappings.yaml biosphere	emission	not linked	0.00115	kilogram	given	3 4 4 3 3

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/aluminium-1/lca/datasets/aluminium-prebake-electrolysis.yaml in library version a3c52e4.

Used by

No other activity of this database links to it.

How good it is

Review: Not reviewed: no LCI review record yet
Data quality: not available
Mass and carbon closure: Not available: a hand-written dataset: no lca/manifest.json records its balance
Change report: Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.

KPI benchmark positions

KPI	Value	Reference range	Position
PFC (CF4 and C2F6) to air per t of primary aluminium	– kg/t	0.01 to 0.1 kg/t Cusano, G., Rodrigo Gonzalo, M., Farrell, F., Remus, R., Roudier, S., Delgado Sancho, L. (2017) Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for the Non-Ferrous Metals Industries. JRC Science for Policy Report EUR 28648 EN, doi:10.2760/8224 (bref)	not evaluated
Process CO2 from anode consumption per t of primary aluminium	– t/t	1.44 to 1.76 t/t IPCC (2006) 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Vol. 3 Industrial Processes and Product Use, ch. 4 Metal Industry Emissions, prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme, Eggleston, H.S. et al. (eds), IGES, Japan (other)	not evaluated
SO2 to air per t of primary aluminium (no wet scrubbing)	– kg/t	10 to 25 kg/t Cusano, G., Rodrigo Gonzalo, M., Farrell, F., Remus, R., Roudier, S., Delgado Sancho, L. (2017) Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for the Non-Ferrous Metals Industries. JRC Science for Policy Report EUR 28648 EN, doi:10.2760/8224 (bref)	not evaluated
Electricity per t of primary aluminium (potline, AC)	– kWh/t	13,000 to 20,000 kWh/t US Department of Energy, Industrial Technologies Program (2007) U.S. Energy Requirements for Aluminum Production: Historical Perspective, Theoretical Limits and Current Practices (government)	not evaluated

How to use it

Downloads

cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx · bw2io ExcelImporter workbook (bw2io 0.9 Excel layout) · the whole database
code aluminium-1:aluminium-prebake-electrolysis:product:aluminium
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-olca-jsonld.zip · openLCA JSON-LD (olca-schema) (2) · the whole database
process 56fb57de-67e8-59a3-8b8d-01b55701f56f (processes/56fb57de-67e8-59a3-8b8d-01b55701f56f.json)
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-multifunctional.json · Brightway 2.5 multifunctional database (JSON, for the multifunctional package) (cheme-as-code/lci-multifunctional/v1) · the whole database
code aluminium-1:aluminium-prebake-electrolysis:product:aluminium
cheme_as_code_lci-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl · the installer

A file with this activity alone is not available: each file above is the whole database, and the line under it says how to find this activity there.

import bw2data as bd
from cheme_as_code_lci import install

bd.projects.set_current("my-project")   # holds your licensed background + biosphere3
install("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx", background="ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff", location="DE")
activity = bd.get_activity(("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4", "aluminium-1:aluminium-prebake-electrolysis:product:aluminium"))

While any exchange of the database has no mapping, install() writes nothing and only lists the unlinked exchanges. So the last line finds no activity until the gaps are mapped: the download section gives the ways to use the database now.

How to cite

Primary aluminium, liquid, tapped from the pots, from Primary aluminium by Hall-Heroult electrolysis with point-feed prebaked anodes (dataset aluminium-prebake-electrolysis 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-a3c52e4, activity aluminium-1:aluminium-prebake-electrolysis:product:aluminium. Cite the Process Atlas paper (in preparation, 2026), by Artur M. Schweidtmann and Jana M. Weber, and the ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database version preview-a3c52e4.

DOI: none yet (the Process Atlas paper is in preparation)

For the data, cite the Process Atlas paper; for the platform that builds and checks it, the ChemE-as-Code paper.

Schweidtmann, A. M. & Weber, J. M. (2026, in preparation). Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title).

BibTeX

@unpublished{schweidtmann_process_atlas,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M. and Weber, Jana M.},
  title = {{Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://atlas.cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}

Schweidtmann, A. M. (2026). ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering. arXiv:2611.07947. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947

BibTeX

@misc{schweidtmann_cheme_as_code,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title = {{ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering}},
  year = {2026},
  eprint = {2611.07947},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07947}
}