Research and application of cleaner production evaluation index system for alumina industry

Alumina industry is a high-energy-consuming and high-emission industry, facing problems such as high energy consumption and carbon emissions, large red mud production and challenges in resource utilization. It is critical to use cleaner production as the starting point to promote the green, low carbon and high-quality development of the industry. Combined with the current production process status of alumina industry, the raw materials and energy consumption, and the main pollutant generation in each production link were analyzed through data research, on-site visits and tests, questionnaires, and expert consultation. Based on the cleaner production evaluation framework model for the whole process of “pollution source control-process emission reduction-end treatment-recycling”, the evaluation index system of cleaner production in alumina industry was constructed. The first-level indicators included 9 categories, including production technology and equipment, energy consumption, water resource consumption, raw/auxiliary material consumption, resource comprehensive utilization, pollutant generation and emission, carbon emissions, product characteristics, and cleaner production management. The second-level indicators belonged to the first-level ones, with 39 specific assessment indicators proposed, covering 11 restrictive indicators that had significant impacts on corporate energy conservation and emission reduction, or were strictly enforced by laws and regulations. Expert consultation and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were used to determine the index weights. The evaluation index system in this research was applied in alumina industry in Baise City to further verify the applicability and operability of the indicator system. The results showed that the evaluation index system effectively reflects the cleaner production level of alumina enterprises, and exhibits good applicability and operability. It can provide a reference for the evaluation of cleaner production in alumina industry, provide technical guidance for improving the level of cleaner production, and promote the green, low-carbon and sustainable development of the industry.