An experimental testing of the SERMA technology for the quality control of green and baked anodes

Abstract

It is well known that the quality of carbon anodes is important for the aluminum industry. Carbon anodes provide the necessary carbon for the reduction reaction in the Hall-Héroult process. An increase in their electrical resistance results in an increase in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It is thus important to have, at the disposal of the industry, a non-destructive tool to ensure their quality. Current practice uses visual inspection or destructive sampling methods, which offer limited information on the anode quality. In contrast, SERMA (Specific Electrical Resistance Measurement of Anodes) is a non-destructive method that uses the electrical resistivity distribution to determine the state and the integrity of the anode. This method, which can be implemented easily in a production line, allows the quality control of both green and baked anodes. The method used by SERMA has been validated on lab-scale anodes, and the results have been published previously. In this study, a prototype for industrial application has been built, and tests have been carried out on industrial green and baked anodes. In this article, the results of this study will be presented, which shows the ability of the method to detect both green and baked defective anodes