According to Alcoa, the world’s largest producer of aluminium, the best smelters use about 13 kilowatt hours (46.8 megajoules) of electrical energy to produce one kilogram of aluminium; the worldwide average is closer to 15 kWh/kg (54 MJ/kg). . . the total world production of electrical energy was 20261 billion kilowatt hours, meaning that more than 3% of the world’s entire electrical supply went to extraction of aluminium.

The United States mines less than 1 percent of the bauxite it uses annually, virtually all of which is used in the production of non-metallurgical products, such as abrasives, chemicals, and refractories.10 Nearly all bauxite consumed in the United States is imported.

Approximately 0.32(0.34tf) kWh of process energy were required in 2003 to produce the 5.1 kilograms of bauxite needed to produce 1.0 kilogram of aluminum. Approximately 16.7 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) were released for each metric ton of bauxite mined.

Use foil only if necessary for the job.