Novel Aluminium Production using Natural Gas

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Consumable carbon anodes are presently used in the aluminium production process, resulting in the more than 1.5 tons of CO2 gas per ton of aluminium. The proposed project is meant to be a continuation of a previous project (GasMet). The depolarizing effe ct of the anode using natural gas was successfully achieved during aluminium electrolysis at 850 oC. Fundamental and controlled laboratory experiments will be carried out to optimize the concept and to avoid the harmful effects of the formation of HF. T he concept of anode gas will be implemented in a larger cell which will allow for running electrolysis at longer times (hours) where kg quantities of aluminium may be produced. The major advantages of using natural gas instead of carbon are a reduction of 50 % CO2 emission, a lower energy consumption the elimination of perodic anode changes.