| Abstract Scope |
The primary aluminum industry currently faces many challenges, such as coping with declining quality and increasing variability in raw materials, finding new ways to increase energy efficiency and improve environmental footprint, etc. Data analytics can contribute to addressing these issues. Massive amounts of data containing valuable information for continuous process improvement are routinely collected from smelters and archived in data historians. New technologies to measure individual anode electrical currents in reduction cells and to assess anode quality using non-destructive testing, as well as anode tracking systems are progressively introduced in plants, generate additional data, and provide new opportunities for data analytics. This talk overviews 15 years of research efforts made at Laval University in partnership with Alcoa Corporation, to develop new data-driven process analytical technologies along the anode production chain, and process monitoring and fault detection schemes for different process units. Challenges and future opportunities will also be discussed. |