| Author(s) |
Atanu Maity, Venkannababu Thalagani, Bhanu Shankar, Deepak Dash, Anish Das, Kamta Gupta, Shanmukh Rajgire, Amit Gupta, Madhusmita Sahoo |
| Abstract Scope |
At Aditya Aluminium, the average pot life is about 2000 days, pot relining contributes approximately 2.1 % of total production cost. To avoid risk of pot failure, average 55-60 pots relining/year are planned out of 360 pots. Further, to reduce failure, an in-house pot life estimation method was developed, which helped in planned pot stoppage. Firstly, pots were prioritized based on the pot age, iron & silica, side shell temperature (SST), Current Efficiency and specific energy consumption. These factors were assigned with individual weightage, which helped in pots shut down, further pot autopsy was performed for validation. A strategy was adopted for measuring regular SST, observing iron/silica pick-up and Fe/ Mn ratio. Moreover, forced cooling regulation, and selective collector bar cutting were adopted to extend pot life. These methods helped Aditya Aluminium to establish global benchmark among other AP smelters by achieving pot failure rate ~0.6% since inception. |