Anode quality and bake furnace performance of Emal

Abstract

As part of the worldwide biggest greenfield project, the two open top anode bake furnaces of EMAL were started up in 2010 to reach an annual production capacity of 450'000 tons of baked anodes. Two furnaces are installed with 64 sections, 9 flues and 8 pits that are equipped with 4 fires each. An unprecedented combination of outstanding anode quality and furnace performance figures could be achieved. This document highlights the distribution of key anode properties, furnace productivity and energy consumption. Furnace design and operational challenges to reach today’s standards are discussed.