Encyclopedie de la recherche sur l'aluminium au Quebec - Edition 2014 | Page 21

PRODUCTION DE L’ALUMINIUM // ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION

Real-time Vibrated Bulk Density (VBD)
measurement by image analysis
MESURE EN TEMPS RÉEL DE LA DENSITÉ APPARENTE EN VIBRATION (VBD) PAR IMAGERIE

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Mesure en temps réel de la densité apparente en
REAL-TIME VIBRATED BULK DENSITY (VBD) MEASUREMENT BY IMAGE ANALYSIS
vibration (VBD) par imagerie
Wilinthon Bogoya-Forero1, Carl Duchesne1 et Jayson Tessier2
1

2

Centre de recherche sur l’aluminium – REGAL, Département de Génie Chimique,
Université Laval, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

Alcoa Canada Primary Metals, Aluminerie de Deschambault, 1 Boulevard des Sources,
Deschambault - Grondines, QC, G0A 1S0, Canada

1. Introduction

5. Experimental

• Petroleum coke is a byproduct of the refining of crude oil and is
considered by the refineries a waste product.

• Evaluate the effect of coke type and particle size
distribution on the texture by image analysis to estimate
the VBD.

• For the aluminum industry, however, petroleum coke is an essential raw
material for the production of anodes (Fig. 1).

MIXED COKE
• Effect of the proportion of sponge cokes (A & E).

UNMIXED COKE

• Five sponge cokes (A-E) were classified as shown in table 1.
VBD apparatus

Table 1. Particle size distribution
Fig 1. Schematic of the baked anode manufacturing process



The coke porosity is a key factor in optimizing pitch demand and anode
density.

2. Problem

Size
Opening (mm)
class
1
2,38 – 4,75
Coarse
2
1,41 - 2,38
3
0.6 - 1,41
4
0,3 - 0,6
Intermediate
5
0,15 - 0,3
6
0,074 -