Grant: Alliance Grants

In the last decades, the aluminium smelters have faced various challenges to remain competitive since the price and availability of energy have varied significantly. To cope with these energy issues, some smelters have decided to shift to renewable energies such as solar or wind sources to produce the electricity needed for the aluminium production, while others have decided to implement power modulation strategies as they benefited from a lower price of electricity during off-peaks periods of the day. Since the smelters need to cope with both variable energy supply and variable energy demand, it is of utmost importance to gain knowledge on the effect of these transient scenarios on the behaviour of the aluminium electrolysis cells in which the liquid metal is produced. This research proposal aims at developing new knowledge and engineering tools to predict more precisely the impact of transient operating conditions on the thermal and thermochemical states of the electrolysis cells. The proposed work is divided into 4 complementary blocks: 1- Improve the realism of the cell's transient mathematical models, 2- Incorporate model reduction to decrease the computation time of these transient models, 3- Design new physical sensors for continuous measurements in the cells, and 4- Develop intelligent sensors to predict information which is not accessible through standard measurement methods. By proposing tools for the diagnosis of the electrolysis cells and by improving its process control, this partnership will help the Canadian aluminium industry to stay competitive and will have a positive impact on the environment reducing by the same way Canadian greenhouse gas production. By improving the cell's lifetime, performance and operation, the smelters will extend the electrolysis cells' longevity, sustain a better current efficiency, and minimize the anode effects that generate perfluorocarbon gases which represent a significant greenhouse gas effect. This partnership is essential for Canada because of the important contribution of its aluminium industry to the world's production and national economy. In 2021, Canadian smelters produced 3.1 Mt of aluminium, which represents approximately 5% of the world's production.