A major event took place on March 1st, 2011: Alcoa made the decision which should hit all smelters of the world with obsolescence.

Alcoa has acquired from ORKLA (Norway) 100% of the Carbothermic Smelting Technology applied to primary aluminum. It means that its management and engineers are convinced that the time has come for the 130-year old Hall-Heroult process to finally fade gently away during this decade, as did the steam engine at the turn of last century. Heavy trends prevailing today, whether energy costs, environment concerns, moving away from megaprojects towards “small is beautiful”, will of governments to create jobs addressing first local markets, or simply cost cutting, will impose this technology as soon as it is proven at full scale. This should be accomplished by the end of this decade. Read more...