Accelerating China's primary aluminum extraction technology innovation

Accelerating China's primary aluminum extraction technology innovation

[Aluminum Road Network] The technological innovation and R&D of the primary aluminum extraction industry are all based on energy conservation and emission reduction, or their objectives are all to save energy and reduce emissions, improve the working environment and improve safety, and extend the life of the tank. In 2017, the average direct current electricity consumption of China's primary aluminum was 13577kWh/ton, and that of the world was 14100kWh/ton. For every 1 ton of primary aluminum extracted in China, the electricity consumption is 523kWh. In 2017, China produced less than 1657MWh of primary aluminum electricity, and greenhouse gases are used abroad. Emissions also decreased accordingly. China's primary aluminum industry ranks first in the world in the use of electricity, but the life of aluminum electrolytic tanks in China is much shorter than that of foreign countries.

According to relevant data, the current average life expectancy of prebaked cells in developed countries is 2,435 days, while that in China is only 1957 days, which is about 478 days shorter than that of foreign countries. This gap is not small. At present, the life of foreign long tanks is about 4000d, while the life of 160kA tanks of Chinalco Guizhou Branch has reached 4893d, which is 22.3% longer than that of foreign countries.

China is already a major producer of primary aluminum in the world, and has become a primary primary aluminum country. It should also be the world leader in energy saving and emission reduction of aluminum. Therefore, it is appropriate to concentrate human, financial, and material resources on how to significantly reduce the energy consumption of primary aluminum. Initiated large-scale research with non-carbon inert anodes, striving to reduce the average energy consumption of primary aluminum extraction in the country to 12,500 kWh/tAl by 2025, which is a reduction of 1,077 kWh/tAl from 13,577 kWh/tAl in 2017, which means a reduction of 8 percent, if not If you reach 8%, then reducing 5% is also very remarkable.

To this end, the author suggests that a research and development non-carbon inert anode research institute be established in the technical center of a large aluminum plant. The state is a major shareholder, other aluminum plants and related units can participate in stocks, concentrate on the country’s elite troops, and lead the world in technology. Aluminum Corporation conducted a "million race."

Here are two milestones in the technical aspects of the primary aluminum industry: the HAL 4e and HAL 4e ULTRA technologies from Hydro, and the non-character Eising is developing. Anode aluminum electrolysis technology.

HAL 4e and HAL 4e ULTRA Grooves

HAL 4e and HAL 4e ULTRA technology was developed by Hydro Aluminium. The former has been pilot-scaled and the latter is under development. The pilot production line was built at the company's Carmo aluminum plant in Norway. In January 2017, it produced the first thick aluminum, which is currently the world's most environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, and its energy consumption and CO2 emissions are both higher than the current world average. It is 15% lower, only 11985 kWh/ton of aluminum, which is remarkable. In 2017, the average energy consumption in the world is 14100kWh/ton aluminum. At present, the primary aluminum production capacity of the pilot production line is 75kt/a. Haidru Aluminum plans to increase the output of the HAL 4e tank to 200kt/a in 2020. This is an unprecedented level of record in the world, I am afraid that by 2025 it is difficult for other aluminum companies to achieve this level of industrial extraction of primary aluminum.

Development of HAL 4e Technology

For a long time, the company has placed the technological innovation of the primary aluminum extraction process in a very important position. As early as the 1970s, it successfully developed the ASV170 technology with Alcan Corporation. Since then, Hydro has never stopped the pace of innovation, not only has a strong technical innovation team, but also cooperated closely with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and put into operation the HAL220 trough in Norway's Huylange Aluminum Plant in 1981; The HAL230 trough was successfully developed at Venezuela's aluminum plant. This trough was also operational in Slovakia's Alcoa company in 1995. In 2009, Qatar Aluminium also used the company's HAL300 trough.

In 2004, Hydro Aluminium decided to develop the HAL 4e and HAL 4e ULTRA trough technology, drawing a batch from the Adar Aluminum Plant, the Camo Aluminum Plant, the Boschglen Aluminum Plant and the Neuss Aluminum Plant in Germany. The backbone of the technology has fully mobilized the enthusiasm of the research centers, exerted their respective expertise, some engaged in channel design, some engaged in process control, some engaged in materials science and engineering research, and some focused on model establishment and analysis.

After several years of this division of labor, it also focused on joint efforts of all technical forces, and finally achieved remarkable achievements in technical progress of the primary aluminum industry in the past two or three decades in 2008. The first batch of HAL 4e tests were selected in Adal Aluminum. Grooves, and laid the foundation for the development of more advanced, more efficient, lower energy consumption and more environmentally friendly HAL 4e ULTRA-type tanks, this type of tank lasted until 2016. Due to the precise control of the magnetic field, the reduction of the electrolyte resistance and the adoption of advanced control systems, the anode spacing has been reduced, resulting in a good overall benefit.

Now researchers continue to innovate, make models more reasonable, process control is more complete, process parameters are more effective and efficient, and new anodes are used to enter large-scale industrial production as soon as possible to create a world-class aluminum electrolysis company with high energy efficiency. .

Construction of HAL 4e Pilot Cell Series in Carmo Aluminum Plant

The HAL 4e trough production plant is located next to the electrolysis workshop of the Camo Aluminum Plant and has a history of 50 years from the KAMO Aluminum Plant in 2017. The original aluminum production capacity of the Camo Aluminum Plant is 125kt/a, and the original aluminum production capacity of the pilot plant is 75kt. /a, the electricity used is all green hydropower.

The pilot electrolytic cell series was built on the old abandoned self-baking cell site. The production of the self-baked cell electrolysis line was suspended in 2009 due to environmental reasons. The new pilot line consists of 60 new tanks, of which 48 are HAL 4e models that can be industrially produced, current intensity is 450kA, current efficiency is 95%, energy consumption is 12.3kWh/kgAl, and the average energy consumption is 14.1kWh/kgAl and Hyde. Lu Aluminum's average energy consumption is much lower at 13.8 kWh/kg Al. In comparison with the Hendering aluminum company Sunndal Su4 trough and the Qatar aluminium company HAL 300 trough, the Alcoa aluminum plant pilot line can produce up to 50% more aluminum per slot.

The remaining 12 tanks are used to test the HAL 4e ULTRA technology. Their current intensity is slightly lower, which is 415kA-450kA. Hydro Aluminium hopes the energy consumption of this technology can reach 11.5kWh/kgAl - 11.8kWh/kgAl No other factory in the world can achieve this in the near future.

The direct CO2 emissions from HAL 4e tanks are 0.8kg/kgAl lower than the world average, while the direct CO2 equivalent emissions can be reduced to 1.40kg/kgAl—1.45kg/kgAl. The Alcoa aluminum plant can reduce emissions by 60ktCO2 in one year. . Haidlu Aluminum plans to upgrade all of the Alcoa's electrolyzers to HAL 4e and HAL 4e ULTRA models, making it a primary aluminum producer with energy-saving, emission-reducing and high efficiency, and becoming a banner of the world aluminum electrolysis industry.

Iillis's Carbonless Aluminum Extraction Technology

Since the industrial production of aluminum in 1888, 1 kg of primary aluminum was extracted by Hall-Heroalt electrolysis. The electrolytic production of 1 ton of primary aluminum can release 15.4 tons of CO2, so the CO2 released by the aluminum electrolysis industry in the world is very alarming. In order to protect the environment, scientists are struggling to pursue the anode material without carbon anode electrolysis to extract the aluminum anode, but it is very regrettable. However, there has not yet been found a non-carbon anode material with a practical price. ICLis is a professional company established to develop this non-carbon anode material.

Iillis Corporation

Founded earlier this year in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Elysis is a joint venture between Alcoa and Rio Tinto-Alcan, dedicated exclusively to Research and development of carbon electrolytic aluminum technology. The company was established under the auspices of Apple Inc. The two companies plan to invest 55 million Canadian dollars in the next 3 years; Apple will also invest 13 million Canadian dollars, and provide technical support; Quebec and Montreal municipal governments will invest 6000 each Million Canadian dollars.

Alcoa has successfully developed a new metal anode material that is not attacked by electrolytes. Since 2009, it has been tested at the company's Pittsburgh Technology Center and has achieved reliable results. If Canada's aluminum electrolysis industry uses all non-carbon anodes, it can reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions by 6,500 kt/a, roughly equivalent to the one-year emissions of 1.8 million small passenger vehicles, which can create thousands of jobs for Canada. It will further prosper the aluminium manufacturing industry in Quebec; for the aluminium industry this is a historic moment.

Metal inert anode

Inert anodes are what we call non-carbon anodes, which can be divided into ceramic and metal types. Alcoa researches and develops the former. Swiss company Meltech focuses on research and development of the latter. After nearly 30 years of innovative research, it has achieved A lot of achievements have accumulated a lot of experience, but no breakthrough achievements have been made in history. Some scientific research institutes and colleges and universities in China have also conducted some research. However, due to various reasons, mainly due to financial problems, little progress has been made. No matter which kind of non-carbon anode, it must be coated with an oxide on the surface, one for the conductivity, and the other is to reduce the dissolution rate of the metal in the cryolite electrolyte. The company also conducted a lot of research on metal inert anodes.

The research and development of non-character inert anodes are mostly concentrated on Ni-Fe alloys and Ni-Fe-Co alloys, among which is representatively De Nora's Fe-Ni-Cu alloy. This type of anode is also called Vero. Veronica alloy metal anode is coated with a cobalt oxide active crust.

The inert metal anode must have several conditions to have practical value: its life cost should be equal to or even higher than that of the carbon anode at the same time, but there are other measures that can be compensated; the element of the metal inert anode dissolved in the electrolyte should deal with the primary aluminum Quality has no effect; electricity consumption must be less than or at least equivalent to that of carbon anodes; electrolytic cells can directly replace metal inert anodes without having to retrofit existing electrolytic cells.

Everyone knows more about ceramics, so it is no longer a warning to ceramic inert anodes.

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