Development and deployment of slotted anode technology at alcoa

Abstract

Alcoa started slotted anode development and plant trials in 1998. Nearly all Alcoa prebake smelters are now running with slotted anodes. Implementation of slotted anodes has required little or no capital investment and has generally achieved improvements in current efficiency, power efficiency and pot stability. The success was not completely incident free and it became clear that the slotted anodes changed the behavior of many factors in the pot. This paper provides a brief view of slotted anode development and deployment on different cell technologies at Alcoa. The chronological development is described along with comparative performance. Some of the negative aspects of slotted anodes in different technologies are also presented.