Aluminum is the earths most plentiful surface metal.

Every
day we find thousands of different uses for this versatile lightweight material
things like car engines racing bikes TV aerials compact discs cooking foil
drink

cans and airplanes even the TV you're watching probably contains aluminum and

as we'll see in this powerpoint.

it's melted from a white powder called

alumina using a chemical process called electrolysis aluminum is what

scientists call an active metal that means it likes to react or combine with
other elements so you'll never find a lump of pure aluminum in the same
way
you might trip over a gold nugget

instead aluminum is always found bonded

in a compound with other elements inside

surface rocks like this granite

is made of many different substances

including aluminum silica potassium

magnesium iron sodium and calcium but

how do we release the aluminum from its

tight bond with these other substances

fortunately, nature began the process a

long time ago

thirty million years ago a subtropical

climate extended across most of

Australia high rainfall and the organic

acids dripping from the lush vegetation

began weathering the granite outcrops in

some areas

eventually this process dissolved out

and washed away many minerals leaving

behind a thick surface mantle of reddish

soil as well as iron oxides it contained

aluminum hydroxide which forms when

aluminum bonds with hydrogen and oxygen

wear this land was particularly well

drained like here in Western Australia's

darling ranges the iron oxides

eventually washed away

so after decomposing for millions of

years all the remains are surface

deposits of aluminum bearing or called

bauxite Bork sites chemical name is

hydrated aluminum oxide it contains

aluminum oxygen and hydrogen because

aluminum is a very active metal it

gives bauxite a melting point of over

2,000 degrees C smelting bauxite at

these temperatures would be dangerous

and costly because of the enormous

energy required and energy costs money

so instead of heat we use electrolysis

to eventually produce aluminum from

bauxite but for electrolysis to work the

bauxite must first be refined into

alumina

Australia's
alumina refinery at Penn Jarrah Western

Australia it's one three Alcoa

refineries in this area which together

lead the world in alumina exports

crushed bauxite mind from all reserves

in the nearby darling ranges arrives at

the plant on a conveyor belt once here

Alcoa uses what's called the Bayer

process to chemically filter out

impurities such as iron oxide silica and

titanium oxide

it's an energy hungry process consuming

about half the domestic gas supplied

from Western Australia's Northwest shelf

project the crushed hydrated aluminum

oxide is mixed with sodium hydroxide or

caustic soda in a high temperature

solution during this reaction the sodium

hydroxide selectively dissolves the and

ammonium oxide into solution leaving any

undissolved impurities to be filtered

out then the hot concentrated sodium

aluminate solution is cooled off and

seeded with tiny crystals of pure

aluminium hydroxide this encourages

further growth of these crystals when

there's enough the larger aluminium

hydrate crystals are filtered out and

heated to around 1,000 degrees C this

intense heat drives the water off as

steam which is released to the

atmosphere through chimney stacks the

refining leaves a dry free-flowing sandy

compound called aluminium oxide or

alumina alumina contains small highly

charged aluminium and oxide ions held in

a strong ionic Network or lattice each

oxide iron has an ionic radius two and a

 half times larger than that E5E5E5"> each

aluminium iron because of this and the

two to three ratio CCCCCC"> aluminium ions to

oxide ions with the like ions repelling

each other the lattice is very difficult

to show in three dimensions but our

KOA's research scientists believe that

in order to maintain a charged balance

these ions are arranged in regular

patterns in alternating layers

to make one tonne

aluminium you need

about two tons of alumina and just under

half a ton of carbon alumina from Alcoa

'z Western Australian refineries is

shipped to Portland aluminium in far

southwest Victoria its unloaded with a

large vacuum system and travels via an

underground conveyor to a storage tank

as big as the Melbourne Cricket Ground

american-made petroleum coke a brittle

solid containing over 80 percent carbon

 is used to make the anodes consumed in

smelting the other major ingredients is

electricity in fact aluminium is often

called congealed electricity there are

enormous amounts of electricity used to

to make aluminium around about 15

kilowatt hours per kilogram is a world

average for aluminium or for electricity

consumption that is the equivalent of a

single bar 1 kilowatt radiator operating

for 15 hours to make one kilogram of

aluminium a lot of power for example a

smelter like ours where we produce

something around 900 tons of aluminium a

day our power bill is of the order of

half a million dollars per day expressed

another way

Portland aluminium uses more than 10

percent of the total electricity

generated each day in Victoria this

enormous power need is generated from

the state's vast brown coal deposits in

the Latrobe Valley over 500 kilometres

away it's transferred across Victoria to

Portland at 500,000 volts are

sufficiently high enough voltage to

reduce transmission losses caused by

this massive lines electrical resistance

at Portland transformers drop the

voltage to less than 1,000 volts direct

current ready for use this is a recent

independent summary of the average costs

to produce aluminium in Australia raw

materials like alumina are the

most expensive ingredient followed by

electrical and other energy sources like

gas or cold labor costs and overheads

follow in third place

the heart of any smelter is its pot

lines that's the name given to the long

lines of rectangular pots where

electrolysis transforms alumina into

molten aluminium these parts are also

called
 Hall hero cells in recognition of the

Frenchman Paul hero and an American

Charles Martin Hall who simultaneously

but independently discovered an economic

smelting method in 1886 Portland

aluminium has to pot lines each with 204

pots like these measuring 13 meters long

by 4 meters wide current enters the line

at one end flows in series from one pot

to the next and exits at the other end

then it flows through the second pot

line before returning to the switchyard

to complete this massive circuit

although these pots run at just four and

a half volts the current is a staggering

300,000 amps compare this to the 80 amps

used in an average home with every

electrical appliance running we can use

this simple equation to work out the

rate of power consumption at the smelter

electrical power or P measured in watts

is determined by multiplying the voltage

V with the current I which is measured

in amps so we multiply 4.5 volts by

300,000 amps to get 1,350,000 watts or

1350 kilowatts of power consumed by each

pot with 408 pots

+ power consumed by auxilary equipment

the total plant power consumption is

over 550 megawatts

this enormous power produces both the

heat and electrolytic force needed for

smelting in these cross-section drawings

we can see how each cell or pot is

constructed a thermally insulated steel

bottom is lined with large carbon blocks

which act as the cathode these blocks

are made from a very hard high carbon

content coal called

anthracite and an oily coal pitch or tar

which are baked at high temperature the

carbon lining is negatively charged by

the steel current conducting bars

embedded inside them suspended above the

cathode on an insulated superstructure

other carbon anodes each weighing over a

ton they're made from carbon rich

petroleum coke mixed with an oily coal

pitch or tar then baked at 1,100 degrees

C inside ring furnaces in the floor of
this huge room after cooling the anodes

are fitted with long copper rods to

conduct current into them the pot

superstructure also includes a hopper

for periodically introducing alumina

into the pot below and there's an

overhead fume hood and removable doors

to trap escaping gases and particles for

smelting each pot is brought to

operating temperature by electrical

resistance heating one way is to lower

the anodes onto a layer of carbon rich

coke lying on the cathode then turn on

the current the resulting short-circuit

heats the pot to 950 degrees C

the anodes then raised to leave a gap of

about 50 millimeters ready for the

addition of the electrolyte needed for

electrolysis electrolysis may be simply

defined as the chemical decomposition of

certain substances by an electric

current passed through the substance in

a dissolved or molten state the

electrolysis of alumina is done in a

molten bath consisting mainly of

cryolite or sodium aluminium fluoride

which melts at 1009 degrees C but for

greater efficiency this temperature is

reduced by adding aluminium fluoride and

small amounts of calcium fluoride

crystals and aluminium oxide alumina

added to this electrolytic salt bath

quickly dissolves reducing a Luminas

normal melting point of over 2,000

degrees C to a more economical 950

degrees the cryolite forms a thick

surface crust which further conserves

costly heat energy during a newly lined

Potts
early life its carbon soaks up the

electrolytes sodium and sodium rich flu

rides so workers add and hydrous sodium

carbonate or soda ash to fix this

imbalance aluminium fluoride is also

added to match the sodium content of the

consumed alumina this maintains the

correct weight ratio of sodium fluoride

to aluminium fluoride found in cryolite
as electrolysis begins these fluoride

levels drop partly because moisture in

the air and the alumina cause hydrolysis

which produces hydrogen fluoride this

gas and other escaping fluoride

particulates are collected by the fume

hood and travel to a fluoride recovery

system

here the fumes passed through an

incoming conveyor bed of alumina which

traps about 99% of these escaping flu

rides and returns them to the pots at

any one time alumina makes up about 3%

of the pot baths content this level and

the pots voltage are carefully monitored

by a computer since any variations

dramatically alter efficiency and

airborne emissions electrolysis occurs

when the electrical current combines