Rio Tinto Alcan International Limited

Jean Camire

Jules Bergeron

Christian Jonville

Denis Laroche

Bertrand Allano

Laurent Fiot

Simon Leclerc

Pierre-Yves Brisson

Serge Bouchard

Pascal Thibeault

Oliver Martin

Yvon Gauthier

Pierre Fournier

Martin Desilets

Delphine Bonnafous

Malcolm Manwaring

Guillaume Servant

Yvan Foster

Daran Emmett

Geoffrey Berlin

The subject of the invention is an anode block (-) made of carbon for a pre-baked anode () for use in a metal electrolysis cell () comprising a higher face (), a lower face (), designed to be laid out opposite a higher face of a cathode (), and four side faces (), and including at least one first groove (-) leading onto at least one of the side faces, in which the first groove has a maximum length Lin a plane parallel to the lower face, and characterized in that the first groove does not lead onto said lower or higher faces, or leads onto said lower or higher faces over a length Lless than half the maximum length L.

Grooved anode for electrolysis cell

An electrolytic cell is suitable for production of aluminium, and includes at least one collector bar made of first metal and at least one complementary bar made of a second metal having an electrical conductivity greater than the first metal and arranged adjacent to one of the side faces of the collector bar so that the external end of the complementary bar is at a specified distance from a specified end face of the block. The second end terminates so as to limit heat losses from said cell. The cell makes it possible to obtain significantly lower voltage drops while avoiding excessive heat losses through the collector bars.

Electrolysis cell for the production of aluminum comprising means to reduce the voltage drop

A multi-layer cathode block () for an electrolytic cell () has at least a surface layer () with a surface expansion index and a second layer () with a second expansion index. The surface layer () includes a surface wetting agent in a first total amount. The second layer () includes a wetting agent in a second total amount. The surface layer () is directly superposed to the second layer (). The second wetting agent in the second layer () includes metal boride precursors that react together to generate a metal boride component in situ when the cathode block () is exposed to start-up and operation conditions of the electrolytic cell (). The second total amount is lower than the first total amount and is selected so as to minimize the difference between the expansion indexes of the surface layer () and the second layer ().

Multi-layer cathode block

Growing community of inventors

Hamilton South, Australia

Jean Camire