How aluminium is produced

 Aluminum

With 8% of the planet's soil and rocks made of the metallic element aluminium, it is the third most common element in the earth's crust (oxygen and silicon make up 47 percent and 28 percent , respectively). Aluminum only appears in nature as chemical compounds with other elements like silicon, sulphur, and oxygen. Only aluminium oxide ore can be economically used to produce pure, metallic aluminium.

Metallic aluminium is useful in a variety of applications due to its many characteristics. It is nontoxic, nonmagnetic, lightweight, and strong. It reflects light and heat while transferring both. It is sturdy but manageable, and it maintains its strength in extremely cold temperatures without cracking. Aluminum's surface quickly oxidises to create an imperceptible corrosion barrier. Furthermore, recycling aluminium into new products is simple and affordable.

Background

Compounds made of aluminium have been useful for a very long time. The strongest vessels were created by Persian potters around 5000 B.C. out of clay that contained aluminium oxide. Aluminum compounds were used by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians to make cosmetics, medicines, and dyes for clothing. However, aluminium was not recognised as an element or isolated as a pure metal until the early nineteenth century. A half-century after its discovery, aluminium was still as rare and valuable as silver due to the difficulty of extracting the metal from its natural compounds.

Two scientists, both 22 years old, independently created a smelting method in 1886 that allowed for the affordable mass production of aluminium. Today's primary method of producing aluminium is still known as the Hall-Heroult process, named after its American and French creators. A significant part of the affordable mass production of aluminium was also made possible by the Bayer process, which was invented by an Austrian chemist in 1888 for refining aluminium ore.

When aluminium was first produced in the US in 1884, it weighed 125 lb (60 kg) and cost about the same per unit as silver. Although U.S. factories produced 7.8 billion lb (3.6 million metric tonnes) of aluminium in 1995, silver was 75 times more expensive than aluminium.

Materials, Raw

All types of clay contain aluminium compounds, but bauxite is the ore that can be used to produce pure aluminium. The main component of bauxite is aluminium oxide, which makes up 45–60% of the material. Other impurities include sand, iron, and other metals. Although some bauxite deposits are made of hard rock, the majority are made of relatively soft dirt that can be extracted without difficulty from open-pit mines. More than a third of the world's bauxite supply is produced in Australia. 1 lb (0.5 kg) of aluminium metal can be made from 4 lb (2 kg) of bauxite. KMC aluminium Company is best aluminium extrusion profiles manufacturers in India.

The aluminium compounds present in bauxite are dissolved using caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), which allows for their separation from impurities. Relatively little quantities of other chemicals may be used in the extraction process, depending on the makeup of the bauxite ore.


The Bayer process, which turns bauxite ore into aluminium oxide, and the Hall-Heroult process, which melts the aluminium oxide to produce pure aluminium, are the two steps in the production of aluminium.

metal aluminium. Examples include sodium sulphide, lime, and starch.
The electrolyte (current-conducting medium) used in the smelting process is cryolite, a chemical made of sodium, aluminium, and fluorine. Cryolite is a naturally occurring substance that was once mined in Greenland, but it is now made synthetically and used to make aluminium. To lower the electrolyte solution's melting point, aluminium fluoride is added.

Carbon is the other important component used in the smelting process. Electric current is passed through the electrolyte by carbon electrodes. Some of the carbon is consumed during the smelting process as it reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. In actuality, 0.2 kilogrammes (kg) of carbon are used to produce every 2.2 kilogrammes (kg) of aluminium. A portion of the carbon used in the smelting of aluminium comes from the byproducts of oil refinement, and additional carbon comes from coal.

Aluminum smelting needs a lot of electrical energy because it involves running an electric current through a molten electrolyte. A typical 2 lb (1 kg) of aluminium requires 15 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy to produce. About one-third of the price of smelting aluminium is the cost of electricity.