Use of Under Calcined Coke to Produce Baked Anodes for Aluminium Reduction Lines

Abstract

Anodes produced using under calcined coke (or Low Real Density Coke) are reported to have less and homogeneous reactivity of all anode components following baking, which results in lower carbon consumption and less carbon dust in pots. Increased butt thickness due to lower carbon consumption provides opportunity for amperage creep in Reduction lines. Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has unique arrangement of an in-house coke calcining operation with carbon plants for anode manufacturing. This gives Alba an added advantage of lower fuel consumption in calciner on use of under calcined coke for anode production. Alba used this opportunity and a trial batch of under calcined coke was produced at calciner with lower Real Density of 2.04 g/cm³. Anodes manufactured using this under calcined coke was tested in a trial group of pots for 3-anode cycles. This paper discusses the quality of anodes produced using under calcined coke and their performance in pot rooms.