Analysis of spinel materials for aluminium smelter applications

Aluminium is produced through an energy-intensive Hall-Heroult process that has significant impact to environment. These are mainly due to the necessities of high heat loss needed to form frozen-ledge to protect cell from corrosion. This study explores the potential use of Nickel-Ferrite and Aluminate, and Magnesium-Aluminate spinels, as ledge-free sidewall materials that may reduce the energy demand and carbon footprint of Hall-Heroult process. This includes fabrication of the spinels, thermodynamics and kinetics analysis, corrosion testing, and interfacial study of electrolyte-spinel-aluminium systems. New sidewall designs that utilises these spinels were proposed and experiments on joining the spinels has also been conducted.