A Historical Review of Aluminum Reduction Cell Start-Up and Early Operation

Abstract

Start-up and early operation of aluminum reduction cells are very important for cell performance, life expectancy and environment. Several methods of cell start-up have been used over time, some early methods with no preheat, but using preheat has been more successful and remains the predominant method today. Ideally, the cell should be preheated slowly to uniform operating temperature on the top of the cathode blocks, but in practice, this is rarely achieved and is different between companies. Bath-up and metal addition also follow different approaches from basic, neutral, or acidic bath and metal addition 12–36 h after bath-up. Recently, dry start-up has also been used. Early operation and the time to normal operation in general depend on cathode block grade and are from 2 to 3 weeks to three months. This paper will present different approaches to cell start-up and early operation through time and among companies.KeywordsAluminum reduction cellPreheatStart-upEarly operation