Opportunities and Challenges Associated to Green Anode Plant Upgrade For Smelter Amperage Creeping

Amperage creepings are part of the life of an aluminium smelter. More amps to produce more aluminium means higher carbon consumption requiring several modifications in the carbon sector. Most of the time, it leads to an anode change: design and density target, with impacts on all stages of the carbon process. At the green anode plant stage, forming process has to be upgraded at least. It is often the opportunity to install new molds, new functions like vacuum forming and sometimes also, to improve the pitch fume capture. It is also a challenge to make the upgraded components fitting into an existing limited space, to minimize the production stoppage or to guarantee the quality of the new anodes. This paper illustrates these opportunities and challenges through several recent upgrades done by Fives in the Gulf countries.