New cooling technique – a breath of fresh air for anode production

摘要

Trimet Aluminium SE of Essen, Germany,uses a new and so far unique techniquefor the cooling of green anodes at itsHamburg smelter: the pilot plant reducesthe resource usage and dispenses with activecooling by water. Instead Trimet relieson cooling by natural convection withoutside air – and this with success.At the Hamburg smelter with its 270 electrolyticcells, Trimet produces up to 133,000tonnes per year of primary aluminium. Accordinglythe anode factory produces onsitethe anode necessary for the electrolyticprocess, with which the efficiency of the productionis constantly improved. Thus, for example,with the modernization of the anodebaking furnace in 2012, the annual productionhas been increased to 120,000 tonnes ofbaked anodes, and the specific energy consumptionwas reduced by 40 percent.