Progress in Aluminum Electrolysis Control and Future Direction for Smart Aluminum Electrolysis Plant

Chemical Durability of Thermal Insulating Materials in Hall-Héroult Electrolysis Cells

“…The production of aluminum by molten salt electrolysis is energy demanding with a considerable amount of input energy lost in the form of heat release to the surroundings. Today, state-of-the-art smelters are able to reach specific energy consumptions as low as 12 kWh/kg Al, while potline amperages have increased up to 500-600 kA [1,2]. The continued move towards low energy cells (lean cells) will require better insulated cells, as less heat will be generated to maintain operational temperature.…”

A comprehensive review of aluminium electrolysis and the waste generated by it

“…Currently, the production of 1 tonne of aluminium requires 420 kg of carbon, 2 tonnes of Al 2 O 3 and 16 kg of AlF 3 (Tabereaux and Peterson, 2014). A strong current of 150 to 600 kA is required inside the aluminium electrolysis cell (Zhang et al, 2017a), and the power consumption is 13.20 kWh/kg aluminium, which accounts for 3.5% of the global power consumption (Cullen and Allwood, 2013). In China, the non-ferrous metal industry accounts for 6–7% of the total electricity consumption, with the aluminium electrolysis industry accounting for more than 60% of it (Lin and Xu, 2015).…”

Applications of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in the aluminum electrolysis industry

“…Al 2 O 3 and AlF 3 have the worst results because the various forms of Al in the electrolyte complicate the calibration relationship. Because of the relatively large computational error for AlF 3 and NaF, a larger cumulative error may be introduced by the molecular ratio calculation.…”

“…The industrial aluminum induction cell, which is the most important piece of equipment in the aluminum electrolysis industry, is an electrochemistry reactor that operates under high temperatures and highly corrosive conditions [3,4]. The cell parameter measurements and control operations are restricted by the high temperature, highly corrosive fluoride melt, and electromagnetic field in the running cell.…”

“…The cell parameter measurements and control operations are restricted by the high temperature, highly corrosive fluoride melt, and electromagnetic field in the running cell. As a result, the pot-line amperage and cell voltage are the only parameters that can be measured in real time, causing cell control to be a difficult problem in the aluminum electrolysis industry [3].…”