During 2019, RTA/AP continued to work on enhancing the performances of both its platforms AP60 (Jonquière –Canada) and APXe (LRF – France).
At AP60 Jonquière, considerable work has been devoted to further increase the amperage and enhance the performances of the AP60 pots. This required implementing upgraded existing technology bricks such as alumina feeding and process control procedures and developing new ones for the pots that are in the boosted sections. The results are that amperage on these pots has been increased by nearly 10% while maintaining operational results.
At LRF, the APXe pots have been relined as well as upgraded with the latest versions of existing technology bricks in order to be able to support the development of new technology bricks aimed at consolidating the pot operations at very low energy consumption. to go beyond 600 kA and below 12000 KWh/t.
To sum-up, AP technology teams having passed the targets of 570kA and 12000kWh/t are now focusing their effort on the next steps to deliver reduction platforms going beyond 600kA and below 12000kWh/t.