Measurement System for Fugitive Emissions in Primary Aluminium Electrolysis

Fugitive emissions from primary aluminium production is a concern both for occupational health and the environment. Current measuring equipment for in-situ measurements of such emissions is generally large and expensive or lacks the required time and spatial resolution to provide accurate information on the source of the emissions. This research is aimed at testing and evaluating distributed micro sensors for in-situ monitoring of dust intensity in the electrolysis hall. Multiple sensors are tested simultaneously in clusters at each location to study variation between individual sensors, giving a statistical average. These clusters are spread out in the relevant areas to map how the emission varies over both time and location based on operational activities such as anode changes. The sensor system yielded results that could be correlated to the process activities, and also showed clear variation in the fractions of PM10 and PM2.5 measured for different process operations.