Effect of electromagnetic force and anode gas on electrolyte flow in aluminum electrolysis cell

Based on the commercial computational fluid dynamics software CFX-4.3, electrolyte flow fields in a 156 kA pre-baked anode aluminum electrolysis cell were investigated in three different cases where the electrolyte melt was driven by different kinds of force, i.e. electromagnetic force only, the anode gas drag force only and both of the former two forces. The results show that when electromagnetic force was introduced only, most of the electrolyte moves horizontally; when anode gas drag force was introduced only, the electrolyte flows mainly around each anode with small circulation; when electromagnetic force and anode gas drag force were both introduced together, the structure of the electrolyte flow fields and the velocity of electrolyte are similar to that of the case where only anode gas drag force is used. The electrolyte flow fields are mainly determined by the anode gas drag force.

SnO_2-based gas(hydrogen) anodes for aluminum electrolysis

A novel SnO2-based gas anode was developed for aluminum electrolysis in molten cryolite at 850 ＆#176;C to reduce energy consumption and decrease CO2 emissions. Hydrogen was introduced into the anode, participating in the anode reaction. Carbon and aluminum were used as the cathode and reference electrodes, respectively. Cyclic voltammetry was applied in the cell to investigate the electrochemical behavior of oxygen ion on platinum and SnO2-based materials. The potential for oxygen evolution on these electrode materials was determined. Then, galvanostatic electrolysis was performed on the gas anode, showing a significant depolarization effect （a decrease of ~0.8 V of the anode potential） after the introduction of hydrogen, compared with no gas introduction or the introduction of argon. The results indicate the involvement of hydrogen in the anode reaction （three-phase-boundary reaction including gas, electrolyte and electrode） and give the possibility for the utilization of reducing gas anodes for aluminum electrolysis.

CFD simulation of effect of anode configuration on gas–liquid flow and alumina transport process in an aluminum reduction cell

Numerical simulations of gas–liquid two-phase flow and alumina transport process in an aluminum reduction cell were conducted to investigate the effects of anode configurations on the bath flow, gas volume fraction and alumina content distributions. An Euler–Euler two-fluid model was employed coupled with a species transport equation for alumina content. Three different anode configurations such as anode without a slot, anode with a longitudinal slot and anode with a transversal slot were studied in the simulation. The simulation results clearly show that the slots can reduce the bath velocity and promote the releasing of the anode gas, but can not contribute to the uniformity of the alumina content. Comparisons of the effects between the longitudinal and transversal slots indicate that the longitudinal slot is better in terms of gas–liquid flow but is disadvantageous for alumina mixing and transport process due to a decrease of anode gas under the anode bottom surface. It is demonstrated from the simulations that the mixing and transfer characteristics of alumina are controlled to great extent by the anode gas forces while the electromagnetic forces(EMFs) play the second role.

Key CO_(2)capture technology of pure oxygen exhaust gas combustion for syngas-fueled high-temperature fuel cells

Integrated gasification fuel cells(IGFCs)integrating high-temperature solid oxide fuel cell technology with CO_(2)capture processes represents highly-efficient power systems with negligible CO_(2)emissions.Flame burning with pure oxygen is an ideal method for fuel cell exhaust gas treatment,and this report describes experimental and numerical studies regarding an oxy-combustor for treating the exhaust gas of a 10 kW IGFC system anode.The applied simulation method was verified based on experiments,and the key performance indices of the combustor were studied under various conditions.It was determined that 315 K was the ideal condensation temperature to obtain flame stability.Under these pure oxygen flame burning conditions,CO was almost completely converted,and the dry mole fraction of CO_(2)after burning was C 0.958 when there was up to 5%excess O_(2).Overall,5%excess O_(2)was recommended to maximize CO_(2)capture and promote other environmental considerations.Additionally,the optimal tangential fuel jet angle to control the liner temperature was approximately 25°.The total fuel utilization had to be high enough to maintain the oxygen flame temperature of the anode exhaust gas below 1800 K to ensure that the system was environmentally friendly.The results presented herein have great value for designing IGFCs coupled with CO_(2)capture systems.