Aluminium is one of the highly abundant metals on our planet. However, extraction of Aluminium is costly because the process takes a large amount of electricity. The most purified bauxite, ore of Aluminium is also called as alumina (Aluminium oxide). The extraction of Aluminium from alumina can be done by electrolysis process. During the electrolysis process, a key factor in maximizing the efficiency of smelting alumina to Aluminium is the control of the concentration of the alumina in the molten electrolyte (cryolite) of the electrolytic cell. The concentration needs to keep within a limit. Low or high concentration of alumina leads to failure or inefficient process of smelting. To achieve an optimum concentration in the cell, a controlled feeding of alumina is essential. For a small scale, this can be done efficiently and easily using the LAMBDA POWDER DOSER-FEEDER.

Fig 1: An electrolysis cell for Aluminium extraction and the application of LAMBDA POWDER DOSER.

A team from the Innovation Center Iceland are working to improve the electrolysis of alumina to produce a high-quality aluminum metal at reduced electricity consumption. They were optimizing the Aluminum electrolysis tests with multiple vertical non-consumable electrodes in a low temperature electrolyte. In the electrolysis process, they continuously fed the alumina into the electrolyte using LAMBDA POWDER DOSER. The DOSER was adjusted to continuously feed about 70 - 80 % of the smelter grade alumina needed to perform electrolysis at 100 % current efficiency. The result obtained with the chosen electrode materials is possible to produce Aluminum with less than 0.14 wt% impurities from the electrodes with an electric current efficiency of 70%. 

Reference: Gunnarsson, Gudmundur & Óskarsdóttir, Guðbjörg & Frostason, Sindri & Hjaltalín Magnússon, Jón. (2019). “Aluminum Electrolysis with Multiple Vertical Non-consumable Electrodes in a Low Temperature Electrolyte”. 10.1007/978-3-030-05864-7_98. 

It is difficult to handle powders or crystalline material with the highest safety, especially in the hazardous condition and higher temperature. Safe, controlled, and reproducible feeding of powders will be easy to perform in an automated powder dispensing system. There are many lab scale feeders are available in the market but a selection of a good quality feeding system is essential. It should be compact, easy to handle, programmable and easy to adapt on to the recipient. 

LAMBDA Powder DOSER for controlled and reproducible dosing of crystalline or powdery substances.

With LAMBDA DOSER, an automation of the powder dispensing process can be done with the programmable powder dosing pump as it reduces human error, risk of spillage and conforms to laboratory safety standards.

The dosing rates of the powder DOSER and HI-DOSER can be selected over a large range (3 decades), e.g. dosing range of NaCl in DOSER: 50 mg/min to 50 g/min and of HI-DOSER, the dosing rates range from 60 mg/min to 60 g/min (slow mode) and 250 mg/min to 250 g/min (fast mode), at our laboratory conditions.

DOSER and HI-DOSER can get delivered with the 0.2 L vessel, ~ 1 L vessel or ~3 L vessel.

The compact DOSER and HI-DOSER powder dosing pump can be placed inside the laminar hood, clean room or HEPA-filtered ventilation. It is also possible to fix the powder dosing system to the ports of chemical reactor, fermenter or bioreactor for efficient handling of free flowing powders.

Additional information about the LAMBDA powder feeder DOSER and HI-DOSER could be found at www.lambda-instruments.com/powder-doser/

If you have questions, need a quotation or price of the powder feeder DOSER, please contact us at sales@lambda-instruments.com