HALL HEROULT PROCESS

AND
HOOPER PROCESS

Submitted to:
Professor gull Ahmed sahib

Submitted by:
2016.MM.47

Department of metallurgical and material engineering UET

lahore
[DATE]
4/10/18
Table of Contents
1.0 Extraction of Aluminum (hall-heroult process)....................................................................................... 2
2.0 Hall heroult process (industrial method): ........................................................................................... 3
2.2 Cell operation:..................................................................................................................................... 3
2.3 Anode effect:....................................................................................................................................... 3
3.1 Hooper process (Refining of Aluminum):................................................................................................ 4
4.0 In the Bayer process:............................................................................................................................... 5
5.1 Refrence: ................................................................................................................................................. 8
1.0 Extraction of Aluminum (hall-heroult process)
Hall-heroult process is wildly used in the extraction of aluminum.in hall heroult process ,pure
aluminum Al2O3 is mixed with caF2or Na3AlF6.this result in lowering of the melting point of
the mixture and increase its ability to conduct electricity. A steel vessel with lining of carbon and
graphite rods is used. The carbon lining act as a cathode and graphite act as a anode. When
electricity is passed through the electrolyte cell which consist of carbon electrodes oxygen is
formed at anode. This oxygen form react with carbon of the anode to form carbon monoxide and
carbon dioxide. In this method of production of aluminum 1 kg of AL produced,0.5kg of carbon
anode is burnt. The overall reaction is

2Al2O3 + 3C → 4Al + 3CO2

The electrolytic reactions are:
At the cathode:

Al 3+ + 3e– → Al (l)
At the anode:

C (s) + O2- → CO (g) + 2e–

C (s) + 2O2- → CO2 (g) + 4e–
2.0 Hall heroult process (industrial method):
The Hall heroult process is the major industrial process for smelting aluminum. It involves
dissolving aluminum oxide (alumina) (obtained most often from bauxite, aluminum’s chief ore,
through the Bayer process) in molten cryolite, and electrolyzing the molten salt bath, typically in
a purpose-built cell. The Hall–Héroult process applied at industrial scale happens at 940–980°C
and produces 99.5–99.8% pure aluminum. Recycled aluminum requires no electrolysis, thus it
does not end up in this process

2.1Theory:
In the hall-heroult process the following reaction take place

Cathod:

Al+3 + 3 e− → Al

Anode:

O−2 + C → CO + 2 e−
Overall:
Al2O3 + 3 C → 2 Al + 3 CO
In reality much more CO2 is formed at the anode than CO:
Al2O3 + 3/2 C → 2 Al + 3/2 CO2

Pure cryolite has a melting point of 1009 ± 1°C. With a small percentage of alumina dissolved in
it, its melting point drops to about 1000°C. Besides having a relatively low melting point, cryolite
is used as an electrolyte because among other things it also dissolves alumina well, conducts
electricity, dissociates electrolytically at higher voltage than alumina and has a lighter density than
aluminum at the temperatures required by the electrolysis

2.2 Cell operation:

Cells in factories are operated 24 hour a day, so that molten material in them are not solidified.
Temperature with in the cell are maintain by the resistance. oxidation of the carbon anode increases
the electrical efficiency at a cost of consuming carbon electrodes and producing carbon dioxide.

2.3 Anode effect:

Anode effect is a situation where too many gas bubbles form to the bottom of the anode and join
together forming a layer. This increases the resistance of the cell when smaller areas of the
electrolyte touch the anode. These areas of the electrolyte and anode heat up when the density of
the electric current of the cell focuses to go through only them. This heats up the gas layer and
causes it to expand thus further reducing the surface area where electrolyte and anode are in contact
with each other.
3.1 Hooper process (Refining of Aluminum):
This is an electrolytic process. Electrolytic cell is made of iron, which is lined with carbon at the
bottom. It contains three layers of fused mass. The lower layer consists of an alloy of impure
aluminum with copper. This layer serves as anode. The middle layer consists of a solution of
cryolite (Na3AlF6) and barium fluoride. The upper layer consists of pure aluminum and serves
as cathode. These three layers are separated from each other due to difference in specific gravity.
During electrolysis Al+3 ions from the middle layer migrate to the upper layer where they are
reduced to aluminum by gaining three electrons. Equal numbers of Al+3 ions are produced in the
lower layer. These ions migrate to the middle layer. Pure aluminum is tapped off from time to
time. Hooper’s method gives 99.99% pure aluminum.

Electro-Chemical Changes:

Na3AlF6 → 3NaF + AlF3

 AlF3 → Al+3 + 3F-

At the cathode:

Al+3 + 3e- → A

At the anode:

Al → Al+3 + 3e-

Overall reaction:

Al+3 + Al → Al + Al+3

4.0 In the Bayer process:

All aluminum minerals are not economically viable sources of the metal. Almost all Almost
all metallic aluminum is produced from the ore bauxite(ALOx(OH)3-2x).Al2O3.H20.
1)Bauxite Al2O3,H2O 2)Corundum Al2O3 3) Kryolite Na3AlF6
bauxite ore is heated in a pressure vessel along with a sodium hydroxide solution at a
temperature of 150 to 200 °C.
At these temperatures, the aluminum is dissolved as sodium aluminate.
The aluminum compounds in the bauxite may be present as gibbsite,
Al(OH)3, or diaspore(AlOOH).
After separation of the residue by filtering, gibbsite (aluminum hydroxide) is precipitated
when the liquid is cooled, and then seeded ( added) with fine-grained sodium hydroxide.
This converts the aluminum oxide in the ore to soluble sodium aluminate, 2NaAlO2,
according to the chemical equation:
Al2O3 + 2 NaOH → 2 NaAlO2 + H2O

This treatment also dissolves silica, but the other components of bauxite do not dissolve.
Sometimes lime is added here, to precipitate the silica as calcium silicate.
The undissolved waste, bauxite tailings, after the aluminum compounds are extracted
contains iron oxides, silica, calcia, titania and some un-reacted alumina. Originally,
the alkaline solution was cooled and treated by bubbling carbon dioxide into it, through
which aluminum hydroxide precipitates:
2 NaAlO2 + CO2 → 2 Al(OH)3 + Na2CO3 + H2O
2 H2O + NaAlO2 → Al(OH)3 + NaOH

Some of the aluminum hydroxide produced is used in the manufacture of water treatment
chemicals,
a significant amount is also used as a filler in rubber and plastics as a fire retardant.
Some 90% of the gibbsite produced is converted into aluminum oxide, Al2O3, by heating
in rotary kilns to a temperature in excess of 1000 °C.
2 Al(OH)3 → Al2O3 + 3 H2O

The left-over or 'spent' sodium aluminate solution is then recycled.

This, however, allows gallium and vanadium impurities to build up in the liquors, so
these can be extracted.
For bauxites having more than 10% silica, the Bayer process becomes uneconomic due to
insoluble sodium aluminium silicate being formed, which reduces yield, and another
process must be chosen.
Over 90% of the aluminium oxide so produced is used in the Hall–Héroult process to
produce aluminum.
5.1 Refrence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall%E2%80%93H%C3%A9roult_process#cite_note-georg-1
http://www.citycollegiate.com/aluminium3.htm