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DX Technology

DUBAL’s Technology Development and Transfer Department’s independent research and development activities are focused on developing reduction cell technologies that offer improved productivity, capacity and efficiency while maintaining the highest standards of environmental conservation.

These efforts have produced, inter alia, DUBAL’s proprietary DX technology, with the first generation DX cells having been commissioned in 2005 as prototypes in a five-cell pilot operation. A comprehensive study into the capabilities of the five pilot DX technology cells, undertaken by three of the top world experts in the aluminium industry, confirmed that the cells perform strongly and steadily.

In 2007, following a series of improvements to the cell design and components, anode configuration, shell, process control, busbars, superstructure and operational practices, the second generation DX cells was introduced.In February 2008, DUBAL commissioned 40 of these improved DX cells at industrial scale within its Jebel Ali smelter, in an operational area known as Potline 8, running above 350 kA. As shown in the table alongside, Potline 8 demonstrates on an industrial scale the outstanding performance of DX technology and puts at it at the level of the best available technologies.

KPIPotline 8
Amperage (kA)350.7
Bath Temperature (°C)958.5
Pot Voltage (V)<4 .2
Current Efficiency (%)96.4
Specific Energy (kWh/kg Al)13.09
Excess AlF3 (%)10.1
AE Frequency (AE/pot/day) <0 .05
Output per cell per day (kg) 2,700

POTLINE 8, DUBAL


POTLINE 8, DUBAL

TAPPING ONE OF THE 40 DX CELLS IN POTLINE 8


TAPPING ONE OF THE 40 DX CELLS IN POTLINE 8

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