ABx Group (ASX: ABX) has welcomed the arrival and installation of the bath pilot batch reactor at 83%-owned subsidiary ALCORE’s Technology Centre located on the NSW Central Coast.
ALCORE is developing a pilot plant facility to recover fluorine from ‘excess bath’ (an aluminium smelter waste product) to produce hydrogen fluoride, with a later-stage commercial plant to further react the hydrogen fluoride to produce aluminium fluoride – a high-value chemical essential for aluminium smelting.
Recent development work by ALCORE has strongly indicated that achieving a very high fluorine yield from the aluminium smelter waste is feasible. However, it is contingent on achieving sufficient process mixing which was difficult to achieve using the existing ALCORE laboratory reactor.
Yield is important, to maximise the amount of hydrogen fluoride and aluminium fluoride produced and minimise the amount of fluorine that reports to the metal sulfate co-products. The bath pilot batch reactor features state-of-the-art technology to enhance process mixing Following engineering design by ALCORE, it was ordered from a specialised international supplier in late March. It features a process capacity ten times larger than the bath laboratory reactor. If the pilot batch reactor achieves its designed high yield of fluorine from the aluminium smelter waste, it will:
- Give further confidence that the continuous pilot plant and first commercial plant will perform as designed
- Enable further development work to be conducted on processing and market evaluation of the metal sulfate co-products
The bath pilot batch reactor has been fully installed and commissioning is underway.
The commissioning of this state-of-the-art reactor will be a major milestone in the development of the ALCORE process, as it will demonstrate that sufficient fluorine yield can be achieved using commercial reactor designs and process conditions. This significantly increases confidence in the overall process scale-up and commercialisation,” ABX Group Managing Director and CEO Dr Mark Cooksey said.
