How does an aluminium smelter measure anode consumption for CBAM?
Anode input minus anode stumps recycled. EU Guidance 5e treats anodes as raw materials with zero embedded emissions, so an on-site anode plant is left out of CBAM monitoring, and alumina need not be monitored. What counts is the carbon in the net anodes consumed, plus PFCs and fuel.
What to measure
- Anodes set in the pots, own and purchased together, in tonnes.
- Anode stumps (butts) taken out and recycled, in tonnes.
- Carbon content of the anodes, so net anode tonnes convert to CO2 at 3.664 t CO2 per tonne of carbon.
- PFCs, CF4 and C2F6, from anode effects.
- Fuel burnt in the smelter and cast house.
What you can leave out
- Your carbon plant: coke calcining, paste mixing and baking furnace fuel. The guidance excludes anode production even when it is on the same site.
- Alumina: it adds nothing to direct or embedded emissions.
- Electricity: aluminium goods count direct emissions only.
Common slips
- Counting gross anode receipts instead of net consumption, which overstates CO2.
- Adding baking furnace gas or oil to the smelter figure.
- Treating anodes as a precursor with their own embedded emissions. They have none under CBAM.
If you want the full picture anyway
The guidance lets you monitor the carbon plant voluntarily for completeness. That helps a product footprint or a buyer's Scope 3 request, but it does not change the CBAM figure.
The Commission's example smelter, one year
- Anodes, own plus purchased, minus stumps: 69,000 t
- Anode CO2: 69,000 t carbon x 3.664 = 252,816 t CO2
- Natural gas: 32,902 t CO2
- PFCs: 25,282 t CO2e
- Total: 311,000 t CO2e for 200,000 t of aluminium = 1.555 t CO2e per tonne
The guidance treats the net anodes as pure carbon. Use your measured carbon content.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads anode, coke, gas and production records into dated records, so net anode consumption and the per tonne figure trace back to documents. We build it from your records, check every figure in-house, and an accredited verifier we partner with signs it off. Have your own verifier? Send it to them.
- Smelter buying prebaked anodes
- PFCs in a smelter's figure
- What a verifier checks at a smelter
- Build your CBAM file
Last reviewed 2026-11-01.