Combining New and Old Cathode Block Assembly to Increase the Lifetime of Pot at INALUM

The pot relining method at INALUM is divided into two methods, namely, a full repair and a partial repair. The partial repair method has a weakness; when a cracked cathode block is found, this method cannot be implemented and has to continue with the full repair method. Improvements were made in 2021 to replace several damaged cathode blocks with new ones, combine the new cathode blocks with the old ones, and continue the partial repair work instead of having to switch to full repair work. The application test of the new partial repair method was carried out on pot R-117. The average operational parameters from the test pot show similar performance to a reference pot. The partially repaired pot managed to get an additional 2 years of age and a cost savings of 109,725 USD. Moreover, the application of a new partial repair reduces the potential generation of spent pot lining (SPL) by approximately 50 tons per pot.