Aluminium smelting cell control and optimisation

The ideal aluminium smelting cell should operate at a fixed temperature and superheat. However, spatial and temporal operating strategies cause changes in temperature, which usually result in variations in superheat as well. Contrasting, in the long term, for mature cells the aluminium fluoride consumption is fairly accurately reflected by the soda and calcium oxide contents of the primary alumina. Therefore the poor control of aluminium fluoride concentration reflects the poor understanding of the causes of variation in aluminium fluoride concentration and molten bath mass within the cell. The aims of this thesis were to i. Develop a better understanding of how the dynamics of the aluminium smelting process impact process conditions hence bath chemistry ii. Subsequently develop and evaluate diagnostic models that may be used to minimise the variations in chemistry in individual operating cells The key control feature to minimise adverse effects is Superheat. The ideal aluminium smelting cell should operate at a fixed temperature and superheat. However, spatial and temporal operating strategies cause changes in temperature, which usually result in variations in superheat as well. In this thesis industrial aluminium reduction cells and their material handling and dry scrubbing operation were analysed in respect to their energy and material balance. A number of experiments were carried out to study the influence of process parameters and operations on the state and path function of a cell. Bath inventory measurements lead to a better understanding of the underlying process behaviour, and it was obvious that energy and mass balance cannot be controlled independently. With regard to the response of bath inventory, bath and liquidus temperature to pot operation, the following interesting phenomena were identified: - some cells are active or inactive with respect to their response to aluminium fluoride additions - positive and negative voltage steps cause non-proportional changes in liquidus and bath temperatures - the liquidus temperature, bath volume and composition can respond rapidly to changes due to alumina feeding Successful application of the results and understanding developed in this research resulted in an energy requirement reduction of 1 kWh/kg

Grantor dc:publisher

UNSW, Sydney

Year dc:date

2007

Author dc:creator

• Iffert, Martin

• Aluminium smelting.

Statement dc:rights

• open access
• CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
• free_to_read

Licence

• https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/

Language dc:language

EN

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/17910

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/37048