About this Abstract |
Meeting |
2023 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
Symposium
|
60 Years of Taking Aluminum Smelting Research and Development from New Zealand to the World: An LMD Symposium in Honor of Barry J. Welch
|
Presentation Title |
Process Recovery to Unlock Power Efficiency Improvement at BSL |
Author(s) |
Evan Andrews, Thomas Booby, Murray Ure, Hao Zhang |
On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Evan Andrews |
Abstract Scope |
In February 2019, Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL) established a project team to recover Reduction Line 3 from a process excursion. The Line 3 operation had deteriorated progressively through 2018, with increasing levels of cell instability, anode spiking and work handed over between shifts had reached critical levels. By January 2019, average current efficiency had dropped to 91.7% and power efficiency had climbed to 13.45 DCkWhr/kgAl. The recovery project ran for 2 months and quickly achieved stable operation through a series of project clusters targeting exception cell recovery, new cell control and management of intergenerational cell designs. An average of 64mV was saved in 2019 compared to 2018, representing a power efficiency improvement of 0.24 DCkWhr/kgAl. Further stabilisation into 2020, resulted in full year performance of 94.2% and 12.96 DCkWhr/kgAl current efficiency and power efficiency respectively. This paper describes the fundamental approach taken to problem solve and deliver value quickly. |
Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: Light Metals |
Keywords |
Other, Other, Other |