Today, alumina has become a global chemical industry with the participation of most major aluminum companies. At present, the global alumina production capacity is nearly 40 million tons / year, of which about 92% is used to smelt aluminum metal and 8% is converted into alumina chemicals.
Aluminum compounds have a history of more than 7,000 years, and many major historical breakthroughs have occurred in the long process of human cognition, production and aluminization of natural and synthetic aluminum compounds. Today’s modern alumina chemical industry has been in the global industry for more than 100 years. Products of various characteristics and application types can fully meet the daily needs of people all over the world, but human research and development of new products and new applications is still tireless.
In the modern alumina chemical industry, since 1886, Charles Martin Hall of the United States and Paul Heroult of France began research and obtained electrolytic extraction of aluminum from alumina dissolved in cryolite. patent. At that time, the Hall-Helter process urgently required a large amount of high-purity alumina to produce aluminum metal, which inspired the Austrian Karl Josef Bayer to successfully develop a kind of alumina extracted from bauxite. A low-cost method, the Bayer process, uses aluminum aluminate solution in bauxite to precipitate aluminum hydroxide, which selectively dissolves sodium hydroxide by pressure in the autoclave. German patents were obtained in two important steps in the extraction process. The Bayer process not only enhances the feasibility of the Hall-Helter process, but also inspires the Bayer process for non-metallic aluminum applications. Therefore, in the early days of its life, the aluminum industry produced and cultivated a descendant, the alumina chemical industry.
The Bayer process’s production value for alumina is rapidly recognized throughout Europe and the United States. The first Bayer process alumina plant was built in 1895 in Gardanne, France under the direction of Paul Heroult and Dr. Bayer. In the next 10 years, other Bayer plants were established in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Italy and the United States.
The Bayer process is capable of mass producing high purity aluminum hydroxide and alumina at relatively low cost. This pioneering initiative created opportunities for Bayer plant products outside of the aluminum industry. With a high supply of high-purity, low-cost alumina, potential customers and operators at the Bayer plant in Europe and the United States are beginning to focus on the application and collaboration of these new products.
After 24 years of the aluminum industry, Alcoa first sold alumina for non-metallurgical aluminum applications in 1910. The product is calcined alumina, which is used by customers as a raw material for the production of white fused alumina abrasives. This is considered to be the beginning of the alumina chemical industry.
Aluminum hydroxide was first sold as a raw material for alum production in 1914. From 1916 to 1920, it was commercialized and sold for the production of sodium aluminate for water treatment, ground calcined alumina for metal polishing compounds, and additives for Portland cement. At the same time, the same application It started in Europe.
In the sixty years of research and development in the alumina chemical industry, many new processes, equipment, plants, products and applications have been introduced and commercialized. The most important product lines include activated alumina, calcined alumina, low sodium calcined alumina, gelled activated alumina, hydrate, flake alumina, gallium, calcium aluminate cement, activated alumina, ultra high purity oxidation Aluminum, beta and zeta alumina, various aluminum hydroxides and various types of spinels.
Today, alumina has become a global chemical industry with the participation of most major aluminum companies. At present, the global alumina production capacity is nearly 40 million tons / year, of which about 92% is used to smelt aluminum metal and 8% is converted into alumina chemicals.
Alumina suppliers on the global market offer a wide range of products with a wide range of properties. These products are used in a variety of commercial scenarios, involving thousands of end products used daily by people around the world, including toothpaste, carpet backing, plastics, paper, paints, industrial ceramics, electronic substrates, electrical insulators, antiperspirants, and anti-drugs. Acid agent, refractory material, flame retardant, smoke suppressant, synthetic marble, porcelain, optical glass, catalyst, abrasive, polishing compound, desiccant, selective adsorbent, and the like.