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Green aluminium? Tell Albo he’s dreaming : Comments
By John Mikkelsen, published 23/1/2025There’s no limit to what the Labor Government will do in an attempt to achieve the unachievable.
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"The smelting process requires large amounts of electricity. A reliable and uninterrupted electrical power supply is a critical issue for aluminum smelters. Alternating or AC current supplied from the grid must be transformed into direct or DC current, which requires the use of large rectifiers, transformers, and sophisticated monitoring systems located adjacent to the potline building. The most inherent risk in aluminum production is a loss of electrical power. A failure of electricity supply lasting more than 2–3 h can cause the electrolyte in the cells to cool to the point where its electrical resistance is too great when power is restored resulting in shutdown of all cells. It is expensive and time consuming; usually it will take several months, to restart a frozen potline because the solidified aluminum and electrolyte must be physically broken out of the cells. Thus, significant business losses will be incurred due to the interruption in the event of a potline freezing. The remaining lifetime of the cathodes will be shortened due to the extra thermal stresses inevitable with shutdown and restart of cells...." https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/aluminum-smelter