Aluchemie
Aluminium & Chemie Rotterdam B.V., also known as Aluchemie, is a company situated at the Oude Maasweg 80 in the Botlek industrial area of Rotterdam. The company is a producer of carbon anodes for the aluminium industry. Aluchemie is the largest stand alone anode plant in the world. The raw materials used for the production of anodes are petroleum cokes and pitch.
History
The company was founded in 1966 by Alusuisse and became later part of Alcan, which merged in 2007 with Rio Tinto. This makes Aluchemie part of the worldwide organization Rio Tinto Alcan.
Production
The production capacity of Aluchemie is 500 kton anodes per year. In 2009 a production of 424 kton anodes required 305 kton petcokes, 70 kton pitch and 79 kton anode butts.
The petcokes and pitch reach Aluchemie by ship. After grinding the cokes and adding the pitch, the paste is pressed into moulds to give them their shape. After this process they are calcined in the bake furnaces. The fumes resulting from this process are cleaned in one of the 3 fume treatment plants on the plant.
The company has 3 production lines, 4 moulding machines and 7 carbon bake furnaces.
As per ton aluminium AbOUT 500 kilo anodes is required, a lot of anodes need to be produced. During the production process of aluminium the largest part of the anodes is used. The butts remaining are sent back to the anode producer, which re-used them in the process.
External links
nl:Aluchemie