Current efficiency and thus economy of an electrolytic cell for the production of aluminium from alumina depends on the temperature inside the cell. Adequate care must be taken in order to maintain favorable temperature, and thus, efficiency of the cell. The paper presents an analysis of a set of 30 electrolytic cells. Temperature details of each cell and the various parameters like bath height, metal height, excess AlF3 and Al2O3 affecting the cell temperature were studied. Favorable temperature for safe functioning of the cell was 940-970 °C. Addition of AlF3 and increase in metal height were found to decrease the cell temperature, while increase in bath height resulted in an increase of cell temperature.

Aluminium (Al) is an important material in manufacturing industries. It is separated from alumina by electrolytic reduction (Grjotheim et al., 1982; and Taylor and Welch, 1985). All electrochemical processes are energy-intensive and the current efficiency is invariably less than theoretical. Lowering of current efficiency is attributed to parallel reaction, re-oxidation reaction, leakage current and dissolution of one of the electrode products in the electrolyte. It has been reported that at ideal condition 300 kA, a cell produces 91.13 kg of Al per hour. The greater improvement in current efficiency and a considerable decrease in energy consumption can be achieved in Al reduction cells by optimizing physiochemical properties of bath like: bath temperature; bath resistivity to flow of current; bath density and electric/magnetic balances of cell. The temperature of bath and thus Current efficiency and thus economy of an electrolytic cell for the production of aluminium from alumina depends on the temperature inside the cell. Adequate care must be taken in order to maintain favorable temperature, and thus, efficiency of the cell. The paper presents an analysis of a set of 30 electrolytic cells. Temperature details of each cell and the various parameters like bath height, metal height, excess AlF3 and Al2O3 affecting the cell temperature were studied. Favorable temperature for safe functioning of the cell was 940-970 °C. Addition of AlF3 and increase in metal height were found to decrease the cell temperature, while increase in bath height resulted in an increase of cell temperature.

Bath, Anode Cathode Distance (ACD), Anode effect, Bath height, Metal height, Excess AlF3, Chemical Engineering Journal, Cross Linked Pva Membranes, Pervaporation Catalytic Membrane Reactor, Membrane Separation Process, Esterification Reactions, Plant Scale Production, Catalytic Membranes, Kinetic Model Equations, Regression Analysis, Pervaporation Reactors.