Abstract
Carbon dust refers to carbon particles, originating from carbon inputs into the smelting process like anodes, that float on top of the bath, below anodes or suspended in the bath. The phenomenon has a deleterious effect on the specific energy consumption of cells and can lead to anode deformations, hot cells out of the process window and stoppage of cells. Trials were conducted in the TRIMET Hamburg Smelter focusing on the effect of dust at anode changes. The conditions were chosen to be best and worst practice as assessed by a visual carbon dust assessment in the tap hole. Contrasting with published literature, there was no relation in the experiments between spike formation and carbon dust in anodes after 8 h. Anodes set in cells with a high carbon level in the tap hole did not behave differently when compared to anodes with a low carbon dust content in the tap hole. Samples obtained from the frozen bath layer underneath the anodes showed carbon contents in the range of 0.0315–6.29%.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
L. Bugnion and J.-C. Fischer, ‘Effect of carbon dust on the electrical resistivity of cryolite bath’, in Light Metals 2016, Springer, 2016, pp. 587–591.
H. Gudmundsson, ‘Improving anode cover material quality at Nordural—Quality tools and measures’, in Essential Readings in Light Metals, Springer, 2016, pp. 639–644.
S. Pietrzyk and J. Thonstad, ‘Influence of carbon dust in the electrolyte on aluminium electrolysis parameters’, ICSOBA Proc., pp. 659–666, 2015.
E. Cutshall, ‘Influence of anode baking temperature and current density upon carbon sloughing’, Light Met. 1986, vol. 2, pp. 629–637, 1986.
V. Buzunov, V. Shestakov, P. Polyakov, V. Tikhomirov, and S. Resmyatov, ‘Statistical analysis of operation of electrolyzers for aluminum production’, Tsvetn Met, vol. 6, pp. 30–33, 1994.
T. Foosnæs, T. Naterstad, M. Bruheim, and K. Grjotheim, ‘Light Metals 1986’, in 115th Annual Meeting of AIME, New Orleans, LA, 1986, pp. 729–38.
P. Polyakov, A. Vlasov, Y. G. Mikhalev, and V. Yanov, ‘On Cone Formation on Burnt Anode Face in Aluminum Electrolyzers’, Metallurgist, vol. 60, no. 9–10, pp. 1087–1093, 2017.
R. C. Perruchoud, K. L. Hulse, W. K. Fischer, W. Schmidt-Hatting, and U. Heinzmann, ‘Dust generation and accumulation for changing anode quality and cell parameters’, Light Metals 1999, Warrendale PA, pp. 509–516, 1999.
B. Sadler and B. Welch, ‘Reducing carbon dust?–needs and possible directions’, in 9th Australasian Aluminium Smelting Technology Conference and Workshops, Terrigal, Australia, 2007, p. 1.
J. Lhuissier, L. Bezamanifary, M. Gendre, and M.-J. Chollier, ‘Use of under-calcined coke for the production of low reactivity anodes’, in Essential Readings in Light Metals, Springer, 2016, pp. 109–113.
W. K. Fischer, F. Keller, and R. Perruchoud, ‘Interdependence between anode net consumption and pot design, pot operating parameters and anode properties’, Light Met., vol. 681, 1991.
A. Zoukel, P. Chartrand, and G. Soucy, ‘Study of aluminum carbide formation in Hall-Heroult electrolytic cells’, Light Met., vol. 2009, pp. 1123–1128, 2009.
H. Gudbrandsen, Sterten, and R. Ødegård, ‘Cathodic dissolution of carbon in cryolitic melts’, Light Met., 1992, pp. 521–528, 1992.
O. E. Frosta, ‘Anode Cover Material - Impact on anodes’, presented at the 6th Icelandic Rodding Shop Conference, 2014.
M. W. Meier, R. C. Perruchoud, and W. K. Fischer, ‘Production and performance of slotted anodes’, Light Met., pp. 277–282, 2007.
A. Fitchett, D. Morgan, and B. Welch, ‘The reduction in anode airburn with protective covers’, in Essential Readings in Light Metals, Springer, 2016, pp. 663–666.
N. Bird, B. McEnaney, and B. Sadler, ‘Some Practical Consequence of Analyses of the Carboxy and Airburn Reactions of Anode Carbons’, Light Met. 1990, pp. 467–471, 1990.
W. Fischer and R. Perruchoud, ‘Factors Influencing the Carboxy- and Air-Reactivity Behavior of Prebaked Anodes in Hall–Heroult Cells’, Light Met. 1986, vol. 2, pp. 575–580, 1986.
D. Brooks and V. Bullough, ‘Factors in the design of reduction cell anodes’, Light Met. 1984, pp. 961–976, 1984.
R. W. Peterson, ‘Temperature and voltage measurements in Hall cell anodes’, in Essential Readings in Light Metals, Springer, 2016, pp. 500–508.
F. Aune, M. Bugge, H. Kvande, T. Ringstad, and S. Rolseth, ‘Thermal effects by anode changing in prebake reduction cells’, Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, Warrendale, PA (United States), 1996.
B. Sadler and S. Algie, ‘Macrostructural assessment of sub-surface carboxy attack in anodes’, in JOURNAL OF METALS, 1988, vol. 40, pp. 36–36.
B. Patra and A. Palchowdhury, ‘Improvement in oxidation Behaviour of Prebake anodes used in NALCO smelter plant’, 2017.
A. Jassim, N. Al Jabri, S. A. Rabbaa, E. G. Mofor, and J. Jamal, ‘Innovative Anode Coating Technology to Reduce Anode Carbon Consumption in Aluminum Electrolysis Cells’, in Light Metals 2019, Springer, 2019, pp. 745–752.
R. Odegard and H. Gudbrandsen, ‘A Study of spikes from industrial hall-herould anodes’, Aluminium, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 56–59, 1992.
B. A. Sadler, ‘Critical issues in anode production and quality to avoid anode performance problems’, 2015.
R. Ødegård and S. H. Avard Midtlyng, ‘Electrochemical and chemical reactivity of carbon electrodeposited from cryolitic melts containing aluminum carbide’, J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 138, no. 9, pp. 2612–2617, 1991.
K. Solbu, ‘Study on the deformation of prebaked anodes in aluminium electrolysis’, Diploma thesis, Institute for Material Technology and Technical Electrochemistry, Norway’s University of Technical and Natural Sciences, NTNU, Trondheim, 1999.
A. T. Tabereaux, ‘Maximum anode effect voltage’, Light Met., vol. 207, pp. 405–410, 2007.
W. Kristensen, G. Höskuldsson, and O. Jonsson, ‘Improvements in Smelter Performance through operating practices and process control’, in Proceedings of the 8th Australasian Aluminium Smelting Technology Conference and Worskhop, Yeppoon, Australia, 2004, pp. 3–8.
K. Khaji and M. Al Qassemi, ‘The Role of Anode Manufacturing Processes in Net Carbon Consumption’, Metals, vol. 6, no. 6, p. 128, 2016.
K. Grjotheim, Introduction to aluminium electrolysis: understanding the Hall-Hérloult process. Aluminium-Verlag, 1993.
M. Ali and A. Omran, ‘Anode spike formation in prebaked aluminium reduction cells’, Al-Azhar Univ. Eng. J. JAUES Vol 7 No 4 Dec, p. 29, 2012.
N. Wai-Poi, B. Rolofs, and C. A. Voerde, ‘Impact of energy management and superheat on anode spike formation’, Light Met., pp. 535–540, 2001.
J. Antille and R. Von Kaenel, ‘Using a magnetohydrodynamic model to analyze pot stability in order to identify an abnormal operating condition’, in Essential Readings in Light Metals, Springer, 2016, pp. 367–372.
H. Gudmundsson, ‘Anode Dusting from a Potroom Perspective at Nordural and Correlation with Anode Properties’, in Light Metals 2011, Springer, 2011, pp. 471–476.
M. P. Taylor, A. Mulder, M. J. Hautus, J. J. Chen, and M. Stam, ‘Analysis of human work decisions in an aluminium smelter’, Int. J. Decis. Sci. Risk Manag., vol. 2, no. 1–2, pp. 46–65, 2010.
V. Potocnik, A. Arkhipov, N. Ahli, and A. Alzarooni, ‘Measurement of DC busbar currents in aluminium smelters’, in Proceedings of 35 th International ICSOBA Conference, Hamburg, Germany, Travaux, 2017, vol. 46, pp. 1113–1128.
V. Gusberti, D. S. Severo, A. F. Schneider, E. C. Pinto, and A. C. Vilela, ‘Modeling the effect of the anode change sequence with a non-linear shallow water stability model’, Light Met., pp. 157–164, 2007.
M. Jensen, K. Kalgraf, T. Nordbo, and T. Pedersen, ‘ACD measurement and theory’, in Light Metals, TMS San Francisco, CA, 2009, pp. 455–459.
M. W. Meier, Anodes—From the raw materials to the pot performance—Proceedings of 8th International Training Course 2018, 2018.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dechent, M., Taylor, M.P., Meier, R., Tiedemann, L., Meier, M., Friedrich, B. (2021). Carbon Dust—Its Short-Term Influence on Potroom Operations During Anode Change. In: Perander, L. (eds) Light Metals 2021. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65396-5_55
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65396-5_55
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-65395-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-65396-5
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)