Novel Developments for Inert Anodes and Wettable Cathodes in Aluminium Electrolysis

The global aluminiumAluminium industry is trying to reduce its carbon footprintCarbon footprint, in line with climateClimate change policy, and great strides are being made in the use of hydropower, solar, and geothermal electricity, as opposed to fossil-fuel powered electricity. Two major smelting challenges remain however: finding inert anodesInert anodes and wettable cathodesWettable cathodes. VSCA, a EuropeanEuropean materials company, has invented and developed two promising solutions: (1) A nickel-based anodeAnode alloyAlloys that has been successfully tested for over a week at 960 °C in a Hall-Héroult cellCell with limited corrosionCorrosion or passivation; (2) A wettable TiB2 cathodeCathode that has survived over 3 months of continuous exposure to liquid aluminiumAluminium, again at 960 °C, without any signs of degradationDegradation or dissolutionDissolution. Combining an inert anodeInert anodes with a wettable cathodeWettable cathodes is considered to be the ‘holy grail’ of aluminium electrolysisAluminium electrolysis. This paper shows that green aluminiumAluminium with near-zero CO2 is within grasp and could be realized with further testing and industrial scale-up.