Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier
Philippe Couillard joined a key execs from Apple and industrial manufacturers
Alcoa and Rio Tinto to announce a new process for smelting aluminum that
removes greenhouse gases from the equation.
Alcoa and Rio Tinto are creating a joint venture in based in
Montreal called Elysis, to help mainstream the process, with plans to make it
commercially available by 2024. Along with swapping carbon for oxygen as a
byproduct of the production process, the technology is also expected to reduce
costs by 15-percent.
It’s easy to see why Apple’s jumped at investing into tech
here, investing $13 million CAD ($10 million USD) in the process. The company
has been making a big push over the past couple of years to reduce its carbon
footprint across the board. This time last month, Apple announced that it had moved to 100-percent
clean energy for its global facilitates.
“Apple is committed to advancing technologies that are good
for the planet and help protect it for generations to come,” Tim Cook said in a
release tied to today’s news. We are proud to be part of this ambitious new
project, and look forward to one day being able to use aluminum produced
without direct greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing of our products.”
Those companies, along with the Governments of Canada and
Quebec have combined to invest a full $188 million CAD in the forward looking
tech. While the new business will be headquartered in Montreal, U.S.
manufacturing will also get a piece of the pie. Alcoa has been smelting metal
through the process at a smaller scale in a plant outside of Pittsburg since
2009.
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