Andrey Panov

Abstract:

World aluminium oxide (alumina) production exceeds 150 million tons per year with > 95 % of it being used for manufacturing of primary aluminium and accounts for about 40 % of production cost of the latter. Making alumina cheaper and in a sustainable way is an urgent need of mankind. During over 150 years of industrial alumina production, the industry became mature and there seems to be little room for major improvement. Nevertheless, several companies in the world are developing innovative processes that could make a breakthrough in the years to come. The presentation describes state of the art and potential for improvement of established alumina technologies in fields of energy efficiency, residue generation, capital and operation cost, as well as status of new developments in the process of alumina production from different raw materials by different methods, including gaps that need to be covered and potential benefits of new processes.