Wolfgang Korsus Dipl.-Ing. NT, Astrophysicist

Klingenberg 40
25451 Quickborn, Germany
Email: wkorsus@gmx.de
iPhone: 01625680456
FN: 04106 69295
Website: Wolfgang.korsus.net

Chapter 333/15 Part 3

Having once enjoyed working with aluminum, my conclusion is as follows: It is EVERYWHERE, isn’t it?……present ‼

Today, after several years of testing and experience based on this, I am horrified by this element. Humans work with it and mainly cause the daily destruction of our planet.

It is difficult to list all the dangers that this element, discovered late by humans, brings with it. In its finished state, it is incredibly shiny and seductive. With an atomic number of 13 in the periodic table of elements and a mass fraction of 7.57 percent, it is the most common metal in the Earth’s crust. …and hold on tight, it occurs „all around the globe.“

I expanded the profile of Al, or aluminum, a little more… The largest deposits are in the tropical belt (in northern Brazil, West Africa, India, Jamaica), and much to the amazement of many biologists, the fact that… – Although the raw material has been present in granite, loam, gneiss, and clay for billions of years, evolution has not yet used or utilized it in any form of the diverse life that has existed to date.

Then suddenly, a breakthrough discovery: just under 200 years ago, humans struck gold. From then on, this truly brilliant „seducer“ began its triumphant advance. I call it a cheap luxury that has found its way into everyday life on a massive scale. It weighs only a third as much as iron but has almost the same strength as „iron“ and can be shaped as desired, conducts electricity and heat, is tasteless and „translucent“ – making it ideal for packaging and preserving food.

Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry is very fond of using this substance and adds aluminum as a welcome binding agent to vaccines, medications, creams, etc. Even two-thirds of all deodorants contain this versatile substance. There, it sticks skin cells together, but in doing so, it prevents annoying sweating. I’ve heard that women are the biggest consumers and that men are slowly catching up. This is true worldwide…great, isn’t it?

Now enough with the jokes…on to the next mess.

Just a quick note…I’d rather say: Doctors are noticing an increased incidence of tumors in the armpit area. Incidentally, the International Aluminum Institute in London counters: At most, one percent is absorbed by the body! No evidence of toxicity!

Christopher Exley, a toxicologist at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry at Keele University in the UK, sees things „completely“ differently, as he has been studying the effects of aluminum for 30 years.

However, in addition to the consequences for humans, he points to the metal’s involvement in fish and forest die-offs. Water dissolves acid from the earth, releasing tiny aluminum particles.

Note: But humans also interfere with the water cycle. Cities such as Paris use aluminum chloride to treat their drinking water. This has dangerous side effects: aluminum particles are found in the brain, a neurotoxin that does not belong there and can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have found that the foreign aluminum is enclosed and clumps together by macrophages, the scavenger cells of the human immune system. The Paris city administration is therefore switching to iron powder. While science is cautiously approaching the risks of the white powder, industry is virtually hooked on the „drug.“ In the current age of aluminum, it is mined, washed, and melted under high pressure. Products such as cans, aluminum rims, house facades, barbecue foil, computer cases, and even espresso capsules are in demand worldwide. An astonishing 65 million tons (2020) of the shiny silver metal are processed annually for this purpose. From the jungle to the pigsty Bauxite is aluminum earth, as it contains particularly high concentrations of aluminum oxide.

Porto Trombetas in northern Brazil is just one of the world’s large bauxite mines. Every year, 300 soccer fields of rainforest are cleared. Bulldozers push away the seemingly worthless humus layer, which is up to three meters high, in just a few days, and then mining can begin. Nature is basically being kicked in the ass. In huge vats, with enormous „water consumption“ (on top of everything else), the aluminum-containing rock is separated in the first washing cycle. What remains is left behind in biologically dead reservoirs that will eventually dry up. I call this kind of thing sealed red earth.

The remaining bauxite raw material is shipped to the coast via the Rio Trombetas – 90,000 tons daily, or approximately 3,800 truckloads.

The world’s largest „aluminum oxide refinery“ is located here in Barcarena. Seven million tons of rock are processed here annually. In the dust-red-covered refinery, caustic soda is then added, a lot of caustic soda, to separate the aluminum oxide from iron and some other „disturbing“ components. That’s about half of the processed tonnage. It ends up as highly toxic chemical sludge in the hazardous waste red mud landfill.

Enough of this madness…‼ ‼ ‼

Now on to something else, it’s all about espresso, but anyone who thinks this is harmless is mistaken! „BITTER AFTERTASTE“ 5 grams of espresso powder for €0.50, which works out at €100 per kilo. However, this hefty price tag hardly deters anyone. On the contrary, the espresso tastes good: in 2020, Nestlé subsidiary Nespresso sold 12 billion aluminum capsules worldwide, creating a mountain of waste totaling 10,000 tons. Shredding the Golden Gate Bridge would produce roughly the same amount of scrap metal. In 2020, 4 billion coffee capsules were consumed in Germany alone. Nespresso now shares the lucrative German capsule market with numerous other suppliers who use plastic as well as aluminum for their coffee capsules. The waste adds up to 6,500 tons of inseparable plastic and aluminum waste. The fact that producing one ton of aluminum consumes around 16,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and almost 70 cubic meters of water, as well as leaving behind tons of corrosive red sludge and climate-active CO2, quickly makes you forget the full-bodied aroma of a freshly brewed espresso, but it now has a bitter aftertaste.

Pay attention and don’t look away!

One of the biggest environmental disasters in the „heart of Europe,“ more precisely in the tranquil village of „Ajka in Hungary,“ showed what can happen as a result. The dam that contained the red sludge from a neighboring aluminum factory broke. …….Catastrophic……..A flood wave several meters high swept over fields and houses, turning everything blood red and corroding everything it came into contact with, including human flesh, down to the bone. ?…a disgusting remark on my part…

Moving on to the refining process itself, it involves aluminum hydroxide and aluminum oxide, which is extracted at 1,300 degrees Celsius. Most of the aluminum oxide powder is shipped by freighter to aluminum smelters around the world, with a small amount going to the cement industry and aluminum ceramics. At this point, the aluminum metal does not yet shine like silver. Electrolysis is still required to melt the coveted metal from the oxide powder using a lot of electricity – an insane amount of electricity. This is because it must ultimately be separated from the aggressive oxygen.

A mere one percent of global electricity production is required for „aluminum smelting.“ This makes it about ten times more expensive than „steel production.“ The cost share for the energy input is therefore 45 percent… so it’s no surprise that „Alunorf,“ the world’s largest aluminum rolling and smelting plant, is located in Neuss, in the heart of Germany.

This location is where a number of paradoxes come together on the long journey of aluminum from the jungles of Latin America to the kitchen foil in our cozy German homes. In 2020, Alunorf produced 2 million tons of aluminum, consuming 700 gigawatt hours of electricity and 2,200 gigawatt hours of natural gas, more than the 154,000 inhabitants of Neuss consumed. It should also be noted that the matt, shiny aluminum metal block can be rolled, milled, cut, cast, and shaped into anything imaginable. This satisfies many manufacturers, packagers, and consumers. However, it should also be said that aluminum cans are highly recyclable (95 percent) and require only half the energy of their competitor, iron.

I only have figures for 2020, but 3.2 billion aluminum cans were sold in Germany alone.

Like so many things in our high-tech world, the number 13 in the periodic table, „Al,“ has its undeniable advantages for the demands of insatiable humans.

‼ I therefore conclude with a bitterly angry expression:

The disadvantages are mining and extraction, as well as the tiny aluminum particles that evolution certainly did not intend for living organisms, but investors don’t give a damn!

The POWER HUNGRY mainly revel in data…

A particular climate killer is the favorite of most of humanity! Now, dear readers, you are probably asking yourselves… „Who is that?“

The Duden dictionary defines it as a global network of computers and computer networks… Everyone knows that, right?

Let me shed some more light on this and quote Greenpeace: „If the internet were a country, it would rank sixth in the global ranking of major energy guzzlers after China, Russia, the USA, Japan, and India, according to a study by GP.

Another comparison from the Freiburg Eco-Institute on the topic: „CO₂ in connection with the Internet.“ How could it be otherwise? Its energy consumption produces CO₂ emissions equivalent to those of „global air traffic.“

Yes… you heard right…

The thirst for electricity is as great as the hunger for data. I say without hesitation… on this planet, 25 nuclear power plants would have to produce electricity around the clock to cover the consumption of the global network. I can’t help but think: ‼ What „nonsense“ is produced worldwide every day. ‼

The electricity requirements of the large data centers in Germany alone could be offset by „four“ medium-sized coal-fired power plants. The New York Times also revealed a long-well-kept secret in this regard: The „internet giant Google“ consumes as much electricity with its data centers as a large city with 200,000 inhabitants. A search query on Google costs 0.5 watt hours of electricity, and one of the main reasons for the growing electricity demand of the internet is cloud computing (as is well known. The so-called virtual storage devices are, of course, „real“ servers in huge data centers somewhere in the world – and they certainly need a bit of electricity!

Once again, Greenpeace researched and found out that the large data centers of Facebook, Google, and Apple are the ones that primarily produce electrical energy from fossil fuels.

Just as an aside, Apple prefers North Carolina as the location for its clouds, a US state where 61 percent of electricity is generated from coal and 31 percent from nuclear power. For this reason, they have been awarded the „Black Dirty Cloud“ prize!