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Aluminium production possesses its own challenges to the environment on each step of the production process. The major challenge is the greenhouse gas emissions. [200] These gases result from electrical consumption of the smelters and the byproducts of processing. The most potent of these gases are perfluorocarbons from the smelting process. [200]
The Hall–Héroult process is the major industrial process for smelting aluminium. It involves dissolving aluminium oxide (alumina) (obtained most often from bauxite , aluminium 's chief ore, through the Bayer process ) in molten cryolite and electrolyzing the molten salt bath, typically in a purpose-built cell.
Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery. This is an electrolytic process, so an aluminium smelter uses huge amounts of electric power; smelters tend to be located close to large power stations, often hydro-electric ones, in order to hold down costs and reduce the overall carbon footprint ...
Aluminium (or aluminum) metal is very rare in native form, and the process to refine it from ores is complex, so for most of human history it was unknown. However, the compound alum has been known since the 5th century BCE and was used extensively by the ancients for dyeing .
The Bayer process is the principal industrial means of refining bauxite to produce alumina (aluminium oxide) and was developed by Carl Josef Bayer. Bauxite, the most important ore of aluminium , contains only 30–60% aluminium oxide (Al 2 O 3 ), the rest being a mixture of silica , various iron oxides , and titanium dioxide . [ 1 ]
Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex cross-sections; and to work materials that are brittle, because the material encounters only ...
A Century Aluminum plant in Kentucky vented tons of perfluorocarbons, or PFCs, which are among the most potent and longest-lasting greenhouse gases on the planet.
Charles Martin Hall (December 6, 1863 – December 27, 1914) was an American inventor, businessman, and chemist.He is best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminum, which became the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron.