Alternate aluminum smelting processes are considered for meeting the cost challenge of the cyclical aluminum ingot market and increasing the competitiveness of aluminum in material markets. Experience with 46 metals shows average abundance in the earth’s crust and extractive technology are the main determinants of price. Metals produced by thermal methods have the lowest market price. Those produced electrolytically are many times higher. Nearly every cost sector of the Bayer/Hall-Heroult process must be addressed for a major cost reduction in aluminum. This may include improving energy efficiency and productivity (labor and capital), changing to less expensive energy forms, combining purification and reduction to use less expensive raw materials and reductants and producing valuable by-products. Bipolar cells using alumina may offer productivity and energy improvements without costly chemical conversion of alumina. Carbothermal processes can reduce nearly every cost sector if better ways can be found to suppress vaporization and side reactions and facilitate removal of aluminum from the products.
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Cochran, C.N. (2016). Alternate Smelting Processes for Aluminum. In: Bearne, G., Dupuis, M., Tarcy, G. (eds) Essential Readings in Light Metals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48156-2_155
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