The metallic element aluminum is the third most plentiful element in the earth's crust, comprising 8% of the planet's soil and rocks (oxygen and silicon make up 47% and 28%, respectively). In nature, aluminum is found only in chemical compounds with other elements such as sulphur, silicon, and oxygen. Pure, metallic aluminum can be economically produced only from aluminum oxide ore.
Metallic aluminum has many properties that make it useful in a wide range of applications. It is lightweight, strong, nonmagnetic, and nontoxic. It conducts heat and electricity and reflects heat and light. It is strong but easily workable, and it retains its strength under extreme cold without becoming brittle. The surface of aluminum quickly oxidizes to form an invisible barrier to corrosion. Furthermore, aluminum can easily and economically be recycled into new products.
Aluminum compounds have proven useful for thousands of years. Around 5000 B.C. , Persian potters made their strongest vessels from clay that contained aluminum oxide. Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians used aluminum compounds in fabric dyes, cosmetics, and medicines. However, it was not until the early nineteenth century that aluminum was identified as an element and isolated as a pure metal. The difficulty of extracting aluminum from its natural compounds kept the metal rare for many years; half a century after its discovery, it was still as rare and valuable as silver.
In 1886, two 22-year-old scientists independently developed a smelting process that made economical mass production of aluminum possible. Known as the Hall-Heroult process after its American and French inventors, the process is still the primary method of aluminum production today. The Bayer process for refining aluminum ore, developed in 1888 by an Austrian chemist, also contributed significantly to the economical mass production of aluminum.
In 1884, 125 lb (60 kg) of aluminum was produced in the United States, and it sold for about the same unit price as silver. In 1995, U.S. plants produced 7.8 billion lb (3.6 million metric tons) of aluminum, and the price of silver was seventy-five times as much as the price of aluminum.
Aluminum compounds occur in all types of clay, but the ore that is most useful for producing pure aluminum is bauxite. Bauxite consists of 45-60% aluminum oxide, along with various impurities such as sand, iron, and other metals. Although some bauxite deposits are hard rock, most consist of relatively soft dirt that is easily dug from open-pit mines. Australia produces more than one-third of the world's supply of bauxite. It takes about 4 lb (2 kg) of bauxite to produce 1 lb (0.5 kg) of aluminum metal.
Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is used to dissolve the aluminum compounds found in the bauxite, separating them from the impurities. Depending on the composition of the bauxite ore, relatively small amounts of other chemicals may be used in the extraction
of aluminum. Starch, lime, and sodium sulphide are some examples.
Cryolite, a chemical compound composed of sodium, aluminum, and fluorine, is used as the electrolyte (current-conducting medium) in the smelting operation. Naturally occurring cryolite was once mined in Greenland, but the compound is now produced synthetically for use in the production of aluminum. Aluminum fluoride is added to lower the melting point of the electrolyte solution.
The other major ingredient used in the smelting operation is carbon. Carbon electrodes transmit the electric current through the electrolyte. During the smelting operation, some of the carbon is consumed as it combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. In fact, about half a pound (0.2 kg) of carbon is used for every pound (2.2 kg) of aluminum produced. Some of the carbon used in aluminum smelting is a byproduct of oil refining; additional carbon is obtained from coal.
Because aluminum smelting involves passing an electric current through a molten electrolyte, it requires large amounts of electrical energy. On average, production of 2 lb (1 kg) of aluminum requires 15 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy. The cost of electricity represents about one-third of the cost of smelting aluminum.
Aluminum manufacture is accomplished in two phases: the Bayer process of refining the bauxite ore to obtain aluminum oxide, and the Hall-Heroult process of smelting the aluminum oxide to release pure aluminum.
Smelting of alumina into metallic aluminum takes place in a steel vat called a reduction pot. The bottom of the pot is lined with carbon, which acts as one electrode (conductor of electric current) of the system. The opposite electrodes consist of a set of carbon rods suspended above the pot; they are lowered into an electrolyte solution and held about 1.5 in (3.8 cm) above the surface of the molten aluminum that accumulates on the floor of the pot. Reduction pots are arranged in rows (potlines) consisting of 50-200 pots that are connected in series to form an electric circuit. Each potline can produce 66,000-110,000 tons (60,000-100,000 metric tons) of aluminum per year. A typical smelting plant consists of two or three potlines.
The smelting process is a continuous one, with more alumina being added to the cryolite solution to replace the decomposed compound. A constant electric current is maintained. Heat generated by the flow of electricity at the bottom electrode keeps the contents of the pot in a liquid state, but a crust tends to form atop the molten electrolyte. Periodically, the crust is broken to allow more alumina to be added for processing. The pure molten aluminum accumulates at the bottom of the pot and is siphoned off. The pots are operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Alumina, the intermediate substance that is produced by the Bayer process and that constitutes the raw material for the Hall-Heroult process, is also a useful final product. It is a white, powdery substance with a consistency that ranges from that of talcum powder to that of granulated sugar. It can be used in a wide range of products such as laundry detergents, toothpaste, and fluorescent light bulbs. It is an important ingredient in ceramic materials; for example, it is used to make false teeth, spark plugs, and clear ceramic windshields for military airplanes. An effective polishing compound, it is used to finish computer hard drives, among other products. Its chemical properties make it effective in many other applications, including catalytic converters and explosives. It is even used in rocket fuel—400,000 lb (180,000 kg) is consumed in every space shuttle launch. Approximately 10% of the alumina produced each year is used for applications other than making aluminum.
The largest waste product generated in bauxite refining is the tailings (ore refuse) called "red mud." A refinery produces about the same amount of red mud as it does alumina (in terms of dry weight). It contains some useful substances, like iron, titanium, soda, and alumina, but no one has been able to develop an economical process for recovering them. Other than a small amount of red mud that is used commercially for coloring masonry, this is truly a waste product. Most refineries simply collect the red mud in an open pond that allows some of its moisture to evaporate; when the mud has dried to a solid enough consistency, which may take several years, it is covered with dirt or mixed with soil.
Several types of waste products are generated by decomposition of carbon electrodes during the smelting operation. Aluminum plants in the United States create significant amounts of greenhouse gases, generating about 5.5 million tons (5 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide and 3,300 tons (3,000 metric tons) of perfluorocarbons (compounds of carbon and fluorine) each year.
Approximately 120,000 tons (110,000 metric tons) of spent potlining (SPL) material is removed from aluminum reduction pots each year. Designated a hazardous material by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), SPL has posed a significant disposal problem for the industry. In 1996, the first in a planned series of recycling plants opened; these plants transform SPL into glass frit, an intermediate product from which glass and ceramics can be manufactured. Ultimately, the recycled SPL appears in such products as ceramic tile, glass fibers, and asphalt shingle granules.
Virtually all of the aluminum producers in the United States are members of the Voluntary Aluminum Industrial Partnership (VAIP), an organization that works closely with the EPA to find solutions to the pollution problems facing the industry. A major focus of research is the effort to develop an inert (chemically inactive) electrode material for aluminum reduction pots. A titanium-diboride-graphite compound shows significant promise. Among the benefits expected to come when this new technology is perfected are elimination of the greenhouse gas emissions and a 25% reduction in energy use during the smelting operation.
Altenpohl, Dietrich. Aluminum Viewed from Within: An Introduction into the Metallurgy of Aluminum Fabrication (English translation). Dusseldorf: Aluminium-Verlag, 1982.
Russell, Allen S. "Aluminum." McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Thompson, James V. "Alumina: Simple Chemistry—Complex Plants." Engineering & Mining Journal (February 1, 1995): 42 ff.
Alcoa Aluminum. http://www.alcoa.com/ (March 1999).
Reynolds Metals Company. http://www.reynoldswrap.com/gbu/bauxitealumina/ (April 1999).
— Loretta Hall
In addition to its low density, many of the applications of aluminum and its alloys are based on its high electrical and thermal conductivity , high reflectivity, and resistance to corrosion. It owes its corrosion resistance to a continuous film of aluminum oxide that grows rapidly on a nascent aluminum surface exposed to air.
Aluminum , or aluminium (Al), is a silvery white metal with a melting point of 660 °C (1,220 °F) and a density of 2.7 grams per cubic cm. The most abundant metallic element, it constitutes 8.1 percent of Earth ’s crust. In nature it occurs chemically combined with oxygen and other elements. In the pure state it is soft and ductile, but it can be alloyed with many other elements to increase strength and provide a number of useful properties. Alloys of aluminum are light, strong, and formable by almost all known metalworking processes. They can be cast, joined by many techniques, and machined easily, and they accept a wide variety of finishes.
Before 5000 bce people in Mesopotamia were making fine pottery from a clay that consisted largely of an aluminum compound, and almost 4,000 years ago Egyptians and Babylonians used aluminum compounds in various chemicals and medicines. Pliny refers to alumen, known now as alum, a compound of aluminum widely employed in the ancient and medieval world to fix dyes in textiles. By the 18th century, the earthy base alumina was recognized as the potential source of a metal.
The English chemist Humphry Davy in 1807 attempted to extract the metal. Though unsuccessful, he satisfied himself that alumina had a metallic base, which he named alumium and later changed to aluminum. The name has been retained in the United States but modified to aluminium in many other countries.
A Danish physicist and chemist, Hans Christian Ørsted, in 1825 finally produced aluminum. “It forms,” Ørsted reported, “a lump of metal which in color and luster somewhat resembles tin.”
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Learn MoreA few years later Friedrich Wöhler, a German chemist at the University of Göttingen, made metallic aluminum in particles as large as pinheads and first determined the following properties of aluminum: specific gravity, ductility, colour, and stability in air.
Deville processAluminum remained a laboratory curiosity until a French scientist, Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, announced a major improvement in Wöhler’s method, which permitted Wöhler’s “pinheads” to coalesce into lumps the size of marbles. Deville’s process became the foundation of the aluminum industry. Bars of aluminum, made at Javel Chemical Works and exhibited in 1855 at the Paris Exposition Universelle, introduced the new metal to the public.
Although enough was then known about the properties of aluminum to indicate a promising future, the cost of the chemical process for producing the metal was too high to permit widespread use. But important improvements presently brought breakthroughs on two fronts: first, the Deville process was improved; and, second, the development of the dynamo made available a large power source for electrolysis, which proved highly successful in separating the metal from its compounds.
The modern electrolytic method of producing aluminum was discovered almost simultaneously, and completely independently, by Charles Martin Hall of the United States and Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult of France in 1886. (By an odd coincidence, both men were born in 1863 and both died in 1914.) The essentials of the Hall-Héroult processes were identical and remain the basis for today’s aluminum industry. Purified alumina is dissolved in molten cryolite and electrolyzed with direct current. Under the influence of the current, the oxygen of the alumina is deposited on the carbon anode and is released as carbon dioxide, while free molten aluminum—which is heavier than the electrolyte—is deposited on the carbon lining at the bottom of the cell.
Hall immediately recognized the value of his discovery. He applied July 9, 1886, for a U.S. patent and worked energetically at developing the process. Héroult, on the other hand, although he applied several months earlier for patents, apparently failed to grasp the significance of the process. He continued work on a second successful process that produced an aluminum-copper alloy. Conveniently, in 1888, an Austrian chemist, Karl Joseph Bayer, discovered an improved method for making pure alumina from low-silica bauxite ores.
Hall and a group of businessmen established the Pittsburgh Reduction Company in 1888 in Pittsburgh. The first ingot was poured in November that year. Demand for aluminum grew, and a larger reduction plant was built at New Kensington, Pennsylvania, using steam-generated electricity to produce one ton of aluminum per day by 1894. The need for cheap, plentiful hydroelectric power led the young company to Niagara Falls, where in 1895 it became the first customer for the new Niagara Falls power development.
In a short time, the demand for aluminum exceeded Hall’s most optimistic expectations. In 1907 the company changed its name to Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa). Until World War II it remained the sole U.S. producer of primary aluminum, but within a half-century there were 15 primary producers in the United States.
Neuhausen, Switzerland, is the “nursery” of the European aluminum industry. There, to take advantage of waterpower available from the falls of the Rhine, Héroult built his first aluminum-bronze production facility, which later became the Aluminium-Industrie-Aktien-Gesellschaft. The British Aluminium Company Limited, organized in 1894, soon recognized the wealth of cheap electric power available in Norway and became instrumental in building aluminum works at Stongfjorden in 1907 and later at Vigeland. In France the Société Électrométallurgique Française, also based on Héroult’s patent, was started near Grenoble about 1888. An aluminum smelter was started up in Lend, Austria, in 1899. Little aluminum was produced in Germany before 1914, but World War I brought an urgent demand, and several smelters went into production employing electricity generated by steam power. Later the U.S.S.R. began producing substantial amounts of aluminum in the Ural industrial complex, and by 1990 primary metal was produced in 41 nations throughout the world. The largest aluminum smelter in the world (capacity one million metric tons per year) is located in the Siberian city of Bratsk.
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