AlEnCycles – Use of primary and recycled aluminium to produce electricity and heat

The storage of larger amounts of renewable energy over longer periods of time can be considered one of the last unsolved problems of the energy transition. In the HePostAl and HybridStock projects, it was shown that aluminium enables the seasonal storage of renewable energy by means of a redox cycle and that the annual demand for electricity and heat of a double detached house can be covered with approx. one cubic metre of aluminium. In principle, both primary aluminium from aluminium smelting and aluminium from recycled material streams can be used for the production of heat and electricity. In this project, the effects of the choice of material on energy use, the quality of the reaction products and their market value as well as the ecological life cycle assessment (LCA) are investigated.