Testing and Characterization of Anode Current in Aluminum Reduction Cells
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ALUMINUM is produced by the electrochemical process of electrolysis of alumina in the aluminum reduction cells, as shown in Figure 1. In the process, current feeds the anode rods, flows through the anode carbon block, electrolyte, metal pad, cathode block, and finally outflows from the cathode bars. This process is also a highly energy-intensive industry. With the aggravation of market competition and energy supply, there is pressure on aluminum smelters to reduce energy consumption. Improving the control effect and ensuring stable production has a great influence on the technical and economic index of the cell, such as current efficiency, power consumption. The cell stability is affected by the chemical and electrochemical changes in the cell, and also by the external environment, current distribution, anode quality, and so on. The behaviors (such as anode projections, anode effect) are easy to appear in the cell that will reduce the cell efficiency. Therefore, reducing the technical fault in the cell can improve the current efficiency and reduce energy consumption.[1] The monitoring of cell parameters (anode current, cell voltage, temperature, mole ratio, the concentration of alumina, etc.) can effectively reduce the probability of failure in the cell.[1–3] Differing from the YONGLIANG WANG, Ph.D. Candidate, is with the School of Materials and Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China. Contact e-mail: [email protected] JUN TIE, Professor, RENTAO ZHAO, Associate Professor, and ZHIFANG ZHANG, Lecturer, are with the North China University of Technology, Beijing 100144, China. GANFENG TU, Professor, and SHUCHEN SUN, Associate Professor, are with the Northeastern University. Manuscript submitted May 25, 2015. Article published online February 29, 2016. 1986—VOLUME 47B, JUNE 2016
cell voltage, anode current has great significance for the early warnings of anode effects and diagnosis of localized cell conditions.[4–6] Although the anode current is a very important parameter in the aluminum electrolysis process, due to the difficulty of measurement and management, it is only as an auxiliary means for cell control in most of the aluminum smelters in China. At present, there are two main methods to measure the anode current. One method is by measuring the millivolt drops along anode rods according to Ohm’s law.[7,8] Because the voltage drop is deeply small, and the current through the anode rod is truly large, the accuracy of this method is limited. Another method is using the probes to measure the magnetic field generated by the current through the anode rod according to Hall effect.[9–12] The magnetic field in aluminum reduction cells is very complex, in addition to the magnetic fields generated by the anode rod, the busbars, and nearby anode rod, whose interference is difficult to be eliminated.[10] In order to eliminate the electromagnetic interference, some researchers[13–15] hope to eliminate the interference through the improvement of calculation methods. Although some progress has been made, there is still a great deal of wo
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