Trends in Anode Carbon Production Projects

In response to market conditions, there has been a reduction in concurrent major Aluminium smelter projects in the western world. Such projects are now constructed on average approximately every 5 years, at best. This is compared to the boom the industry experienced in the 1990s and 2000s when concurrent or back-to-back projects were the norm. The reduced number of projects has led to a perceived slowdown in innovation. In this discussion, the focus is on the anode production sector within aluminium smelting operations. When projects are built back-to-back the market is busy and, in turn, the key industry project players are busy. They are fully staffed and looking for any means to win their next project and maintain market share. This can be accomplished by developing the next great idea that helps lower capital cost, reduce operating costs, or improve facility reliability. In a perfect world all of these would be achieved, i.e. it would be the next great idea that differentiates them from the competition. Back-to-back projects also bring the benefits of learning through feedback and continuous improvement. Technology providers, equipment suppliers and Consultants use the rapid progression of multiple projects to develop ideas, test those ideas, get plant feedback, and then make improvements for the next project. This momentum of development and continuous improvement cannot be maintained at the pace major smelting projects are executed today. The appetite for companies to maintain their market share has not dwindled. In fact, some might say it is at its most fierce; in the current period one missed opportunity may be the difference between continued operation or closing shop for good. However, without an abundance of projects to fuel innovation, a shift was bound to occur. Gone are the days of bullish aluminium price trends. The major projects of today undergo a barrage of evaluations and must meet seemingly impossible financial hurdles. In the metals sector, aluminium is one of the most scrutinized metals due to high capital costs and in general, a long time to market. Only projects with the lowest capital cost and shortest schedule to production ramp-up are now approved. This pressure to deliver projects faster and at a lower cost than ever before is felt by all participants in the industry. A natural response to this pressure is the trend seen today, where the key players have shifted their innovation efforts from technical expertise, to project execution. As key players struggle to maintain market share and remain relevant to the few remaining projects, they are thinking outside the box, but with a focus on project delivery. Repeated project execution and sustained R&D resources are no longer available to drive innovation in plant design. Adapting and right sizing an existing design gives an advantage with faster equipment procurement. This is one of two means to achieve the impossibly tight schedules demanded for the major projects of today. The other is modularization, which allows a facility to be partially (or completely) erected offsite, thus giving the potential to reduce labor costs and advance the construction sequence by delivering “pre-assembled” blocks of e.g. a paste plant to site. Replication and modularization are two examples of the shift in focus towards project delivery. This trend, while not necessarily improving our knowledge of the fundamentals of aluminium smelting processes, has been a tremendous source of achievement within the industry. In some cases, the “outside the box” approach to project delivery has made the difference between realizing a project to completion and simply shelving another study report to collect dust. However, while the “game changing” anode production technical developments of the past may not be evident, the work that is being done within the sector should be recognised. For example, equipment to detect and analyze anode cracks, and measure overall anode quality are being developed and refined. The effort and work that has resulted in maintaining anode quality with a generally ever-decreasing petroleum coke quality also has to be commended. Although they are not the step changes seen in the past, these incremental changes are nonetheless important. Finally, there is a need to address what will be the most important advance in the modern history of the aluminium smelting industry if it is successfully implemented; a development that will make many current technologists obsolete. Tremendous effort and energy are being invested in the development and realization of a functioning and viable inert anode and wettable cathode multipolar cell, i.e. the “green” reduction technologies. Does this mean that carbon anodes have, or will, reach a plateau? Will there be continued investment in carbon anode technologies, knowing that a massive step change may be near? This presentation and discussion will focus on these subjects and demonstrate that innovation within the carbon anode sector is happening, but perhaps, not in a form that is evident to all.