The Pivotal Role of Alumina Pore Structure in HF Capture and Fluoride Return in Aluminum Reduction

Abstract

Fluoride emissions during primary aluminum production are mitigated by dry scrubbing on alumina which, as the metal feedstock, also returns fluoride to the pots. This ensures stable pot operation and maintains process efficiency but requires careful optimization of alumina for both fluoride capture and solubility. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 70–80 m2 g−1 is currently accepted. However, this does not account for pore accessibility. We demonstrate using industry-sourced data that pores <3.5 nm are not correlated with fluoride return. Reconstructing alumina pore size distributions (PSDs) following hydrogen fluoride (HF) adsorption shows surface area is not lost by pore diameter shrinkage, but by blocking the internal porosity. However, this alone cannot explain this 3.5 nm threshold. We show this is a consequence of surface diffusion-based inhibition with surface chemistry probably playing an integral role. We advocate new surface area estimates for alumina which account for pore accessibility by explicitly ignoring <3.5 nm pores.