Abstract: Low-carbon development of metallurgical industry with high energy consumption and high carbon emission has become the consensus of the international community and industry under the background of carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality. As one of metallurgical industries with the largest carbon emission per unit product, carbon emission reduction of magnesium production is imperative. Developing new low-carbon magnesium production technology is the way forward. This paper analyzes the shortcomings of the Pidgeon process and introduces the principle and advantages of the new aluminothermic reduction methods of magnesium production. The results show that the Pidgeon process has the disadvantages of large raw material consumption, high energy consumption and large carbon emission. Limited by the reduction principle of magnesium production, it is difficult to further reduce the energy consumption and carbon emission. Compared with the Pidgeon process, the aluminothermic reduction process has the advantages of less raw material consumption, high production efficiency, low energy consumption and zero discharge of waste residue, and the carbon emission of which can be reduced by 30%-50%. The aluminothermic reduction process with a lowcarbon emission and pollution-free green magnesium production process has a good application prospect under the background of carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality.

Key words: aluminothermic reduction, calcium aluminate, vacuum-thermal reduction, magnesium, Pidgeon process