The Latest Developments of Alcan's AP3X and ALPSYS Technologies

摘要

The Aluminium Pechiney AP36, 360 kA technology has now been on the market for one year. Its economic benefits in reducing investment and operation costs have been a deciding factor for new smelter projects that are currently under way.To maintain its technological leadership, Alcan is going on with its AP3X HALE (High Amperage Low Energy) development program aiming at further increases in amperage while reducing specific energy consumption, maintaining benchmark current efficiency and reducing the frequency of anode effects.This article describes the major steps of the development cycle, i.e. modification of the cell design followed by industrial testing, and it also covers improved process control using ALPSYS. It illustrates these by showing the results achieved in the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne AP36 booster section, ending by describing the latest AP37 developments.