Have Ionic Liquids been used to refine aluminum on an industrial scale?
I think you are misunderstanding the article linked in the question.

In the process described in the article, the starting material is A360 aluminum metal alloy.  

The goal is to make very pure aluminum metal from impure aluminum metal.  

The process is an electrolysis process. 

$$\ce{Al(anode) + 7AlCl_4^{−} -&gt; 4Al2Cl_7^{−} + 3e-}$$

$$\ce{4Al2Cl_7^{−} + 3e- -&gt; Al(cathode) + 7AlCl_4^{−}}$$

The existing industry techniques referred to by the article as requiring ~15kw-hr/kg are also for refining impure aluminum metal to yield high purity aluminum.  This number is not referring to purification from bauxite.  The "three layer process" is one of the existing refining techniques, and it does involve ionic liquids, but the electrolyte is liquid only at high temperature.