Scalable production of smelter-grade alumina from aluminous clay: a critical feedstock for aluminum production

利用铝粘土大规模生产冶炼级氧化铝：铝生产的关键原料

• 批准号: 580269-2022
• 负责人: Latifi, MohammadM
• 金额: $ 6.92万
• 依托单位: École Polytechnique de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=753703
• 关键词: Scalable; production; smelter; grade; alumina

Context: About 3.5 million tonnes of aluminum are produced annually by using about 7 million tonnes of alumina. North America produces about 13% of global aluminum. Canada is the fourth aluminum producer globally after China, India, and Russia. There are 10 primary aluminum smelters in Canada: one located in Kitimat, British Columbia, and the other nine smelters in Quebec. Smelting grade alumina (SGA) is the feedstock for aluminum production. About 3.5 million tonnes of aluminum are produced annually by using about 7 million tonnes of SGA.Problematic: The majority of commercial alumina is produced through a Bayer-type process whose feedstock is bauxite while there are technical, economic, environmental, and societal concerns associated with this feedstock. For instance, the majority of the world's bauxite reserves are in the southern hemisphere. This reflects the long transportation distance between bauxite reserves and aluminum plants in Canada as well as the dependency of Canada's aluminum industry on foreign imports. Such transportation of bulk material adds to the feedstock cost and carbon footprint. In addition, the quality of bauxite ores has deteriorated over the past deceased due to excessive extractions. Accumulation of toxic red mud ponds and fly ash landfills is another serious challenge in the aluminum industry.Our solution: This reserach, in partnership with AEM Rechnologies Inc., intends to open a new opportunity window to supply SGA sustainably to the aluminum industry in Canada. The SGA will be produced from a raw material that is abundant in Canada. AEM Technologies Inc. is a Canadian company in the province of Quebec. It has developed a technology to produce high-purity alumina (HPA) from this raw material; however, the process is not economically viable for SGA production due to high energy consumption.Objectives: The overall objective is to attain an economic and sustainable production of SGA from the domestic abundant raw material. Thus, we have defined sub-objectives to investigate units of operation, chemical reagents, and kinetic studies to reach a lab-scale process, particularly, to achieve a low enough energy consumption to be as competitive as the incumbent Bayer process. We will also employ a new iterative process scale-up approach to ensure the process is techno-economically promising at a commercial scale. Expected impacts: The proposed research is designed to output a new profitable process for producing SGA with AEM's raw material at an industrial scale. The outcomes of this research will help plan the scale-up of the process in the next steps. The commercial application of the technology will provide engineering and other jobs for Canadians, it will allow the refiners to source their alumina locally (hence, reducing GHG emissions associated with transportation, and dependency on foreign bauxite resources), and it will help clean up toxic red mud ponds and fly ash landfills in Canada. The current global estimate of red mud stockpiled since the inception of the Bayer process is 3-4 billion tonnes. Four undergraduate students, one master's student, and two postdocs will be trained during this project. At least, 5 high-impact journal articles, 3 conference articles, and 3 patents are expected to outcome from this research.

背景：每年约有350万吨铝是用约700万吨氧化铝生产的。北美生产约13%的全球铝。加拿大是继中国、印度和俄罗斯之后的全球第四大铝生产国。加拿大有10个原铝冶炼厂：一个位于不列颠哥伦比亚省的基蒂马特，另外9个冶炼厂位于魁北克。冶炼级氧化铝（SGA）是铝生产的原料。问题：大多数商业氧化铝是通过拜耳型工艺生产的，其原料是铝土矿，而这种原料存在技术、经济、环境和社会问题。例如，世界上大部分铝土矿储量位于南半球。这反映了加拿大铝土矿储量与铝厂之间的长途运输距离，以及加拿大铝工业对外国进口的依赖。这种散装材料的运输增加了原料成本和碳足迹。此外，由于过度提取，铝土矿的质量在过去已经恶化。有毒的红泥池和粉煤灰填埋场的积累是铝工业面临的另一个严重挑战。我们的解决方案：这项研究，与AEM Rechnologies Inc.合作，旨在为加拿大铝行业可持续供应SGA开辟新的机会窗口。SGA将由加拿大丰富的原材料生产。AEM Technologies Inc.是一家位于魁北克省的加拿大公司。该公司开发了一种从这种原料生产高纯氧化铝（HPA）的技术;然而，由于高能耗，该工艺在SGA生产中不具有经济可行性。目标：总体目标是从国内丰富的原料中实现经济和可持续的SGA生产。因此，我们已经定义了子目标，以调查操作单元，化学试剂和动力学研究，以达到实验室规模的过程，特别是实现足够低的能耗，以与现有的拜耳法一样具有竞争力。我们还将采用一种新的迭代工艺放大方法，以确保该工艺在商业规模上具有技术经济前景。预期影响：拟议的研究旨在输出一个新的有利可图的过程中生产SGA与AEM的原料在工业规模。这项研究的结果将有助于规划下一步该工艺的扩大规模。该技术的商业应用将为加拿大人提供工程和其他工作，它将使炼油厂能够在当地采购氧化铝（从而减少与运输相关的温室气体排放，以及对外国铝土矿资源的依赖），并将有助于清理加拿大的有毒红泥池和粉煤灰填埋场。目前全球估计自拜耳法开始以来储存的赤泥为30 - 40亿吨。本项目将培养四名本科生、一名硕士生和两名博士后。至少有5篇高影响力的期刊文章，3篇会议文章和3项专利预计将从这项研究中产生。