Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

There is a long-term problem of large heat balance difference in 350kA electrolyzers in a company. The main reasons are that the smoke exhaust volume of each electrolyzer cannot be uniform by the smoke pip valve, and the gas gathering performance of the flue is low. Through on-line modification of branch gas pipes and gas ducts, the exhaust gas and heat dissipation conditions at the upper part of the cell were adjusted to improve the sealing efficiency of the electrolytic cell and optimize the uniformity of heat balance. The results shows that the measured ventilation deviation of branch pipes for exhaust gas between cells of is optimized from -23%~30% to within ±10%, and the gas gathering uniformity deviation in a single cell chamber is optimized from -52%~30% to -7%~5%, which completely solves the problem of dust accumulation and significantly improves the sealing efficiency of electrolytic cells and the working environment; the measured cell temperature deviation between aluminum outlet and flue end is lowered from 6℃ to 3℃, the precipitation at the gas duct end is significantly reduced, and the heat balance uniformity of the electrolytic cell is improved.