Aluminium smelter receives Alumina which is carried over from the bauxite refinery which generally happens to be approximately 300 kilometers away.Aluminium smelters are power intensive.For example a typical half million tonnes per annum smelter will have more than 1300 Megawatts captive thermal power plant.The smelter is divided into three basic units called GAP(green anode plant),Potroom,cast house.
 

Alumina is generally carried using railway or road transport and is stored in silos.The Potroom consists of pots which are connected to the captive thermal plant via swithyard.
 

The aluminium industry produces alumina from bauxite through a process known as the Bayer Process, considered to be the most economic means of obtaining alumina for the production of the aluminium metal. Two to three tons of bauxite are required to produce one ton of alumina and two tons of alumina are required to produce one ton of aluminium metal. Alumina is then reduced into aluminium in aluminium smelter plants using a process called the Hall-Heroult process that dates as far back as 1886. Alumina is dissolved in an electrolytic bath of molten cryolite (sodium aluminium fluoride) within a large carbon or graphite lined steel container known as a "pot". An electric current is passed through the electrolyte at low voltage, but very high current, typically 150,000 amperes. The electric current flows between a carbon anode (positive electrode), made of petroleum coke and pitch, and a cathode (negative electrode), formed by the thick carbon or graphite lining of the pot. Molten aluminium is deposited at the bottom of the pot and is siphoned off periodically to be transferred to a furnace and sometimes blended to an alloy specification, cleaned and then generally cast. A typical aluminium smelter consists of around 300 pots that will produce some 125000 tonnes of aluminium annually.


 

The anode gets made in the GAP and cast house receives the hot metal from potroom by special purpose vehicles like hencon.The hot metal is hold in tilting furnaces which are connected to the production line.
 

More information about aluminum smelter industry will be found on our website: www.joda-tech.com and you can also send us email to jodatech@joda-tech.com if you have any questions about aluminum smelter equipment.