Study On Sustainable Development Of Alumina Industry By Substance Flow Analysis Method

Alumina is an important raw material in our national economy. It is a resource-intensive industry which consumes large amount of energy, water and resources. The development of alumina industry relies on high consumption of resources, and results in wasting and polluting seriously. In view of these problems, this paper elaborated the great significance of using sustainable development viewpoint in realizing circular economy in alumina industry, and introduced the research status of substance flow analysis, as well as substance flow analysis methods and characteristic, and analyzed the status of alumina industry in view of overall situation and its production cycle with substance flow analysis method.The Euler model of aluminum cycle, substance flow model of alumina production units and model of alumina production cycle were built by analyzing aluminum cycle and the status of alumina production cycle and important indexes of each model of alumina industry and production were studied, including resources index, environment index, energy consumption index and productivity index.On the basis of each indexes, combining practical data of the industry, the strategies of sustainable development in China were studied. The conclusions are as follows:(1) From 1997 to 2012, the ore index of China’s aluminum production was fluctuant. The minimum and the maximum were 0.624t/t and 1.390t/t respectively. From 1997 to 2007, the alumina in China needed to be imported to meet the needs of smelting aluminum. And to 2008, the alumina in China has been oversupply.(2) The productivity of China’s bauxite in alumina production was fluctuant between 0.783 and 0.819, it peaked in 2002 and 2003 but started to decrease in 2004, which indicated that the output of alumina product per bauxite resources was decreasing. This phenomenon should be paid enough attention.(3) The ecoefficiency index and resources emission index of bauxite resources were flat fluctuant in the past 12 years. The ecoefficiency index was between 2.74 and 4.57. The resources emission index were between 0.22 and 0.36. Excluding the factor of the grade of bauxite was decreased, these problems should also be paid attention, including recovery ratio, loss ratio, dilution ratio of bauxite and the recovery ratio of alumina in alumina production.Through the study of China’s bauxite carrying capacity, the proposals are as follows:(1) In order to guarantee the steady development of China’s alumina production and bauxite supply, the construction of bauxite production must be accelerated to make up the capacity of consumption and improve the ability of domestic bauxite self-supply.(2) The government should increase the investment of resources exploration designedly, so that the situation of new reserves are far less than disappeared reserves should be reversed as soon as possible.(3) Encourage people to invest in foreign bauxite mines and establish long-term strategic cooperative partnership with foreign bauxite supplier, and signing long-term supply contract.(4) Establish several large aluminum scrap import, processing and distribution bases at home and abroad and develop our waste aluminum fabrication industry using domestic and oversea waste aluminum resources.Through research, from the perspective of energy consumption of alumina industry, we point out that energy conservation of alumina refineries in China should combine characteristics of alumina production with the production of the company, as well as technical status and many other aspects. The refineries should research the relationship of substance flow and energy flow, enhance management, choose reasonable process, improve the level of equipment and develop key technologies continuously.Finally, the environmental influencing factors of China’s alumina industry were studied. The discharge and comprehensive utilization of red mud which is the residue of alumina industry were focused on. The methods of comprehensive utilization of red mud were proposed. We need to change train of thought, and the red mud should be reused as resources combining with local conditions and develop the value of the red mud so as to relieve the pressure of resources and environment.