Aluminium Electrolysis: Fundamentals of the Hall-Heroult Process

The first edition of this book appeared in 1977 and the second one in 1982. The second version included more recent data, and several of the chapters were rewritten, but the main purpose was unchanged. The book attempted to present a comprehensive treatise on the theory of aluminium electrolysis, together with a discussion of some of the experimental methods that gave rise to this knowledge. Emphasis was placed on the presentation of not only the experimental data obtained, but also the theoretical and experimental difficulties and uncertainties that then existed.

The second edition was a book of 443 pages and contained nearly 2000 references to papers in the extensive literature on aluminium electrolysis. It goes without saying that the amount of work to go through all that literature and write down the essentials in a readable and intelligible way, was then indeed a formidable task. Because nearly 20 years have elapsed since the book was printed, there is now a need for an updated version of the book.

Among the authors from 1982 only Professor Jomar Thonstad is still active in the field of aluminium electrolysis, while Kai Grjotheim and Conrad Krohn have retired now. The two Slovak co-authors Milan Malinovský and Kamil Matiašovský unfortunately passed away around 1990. On the initiative of Professor Jomar Thonstad a few years ago, it was decided to go ahead and try to write an updated version of the second edition of the book. Representatives of the “younger” generation of Norwegian and Slovak researchers on aluminium electrolysis have accepted the challenge to write the present book. The authors decided to start where the previous book ended, at about 1980, and then update the content to the end of 1999. The rapidly increasing number of scientific and technical papers in the field in the last two decades has made this a book of 360 pages and with more than 1000 references. The new book represents an overview of the development in fundamental research on aluminium electrolysis during the last 20 years of the 20th century.

The authors hope that this book may give the readers a better understanding of the Hall-Héroult process, both theoretically and in practice. It can be read without having access to the second edition of the book, but having a copy would be a very valuable supplement to the study of the present book. A considerable number of copies of the previous book are still available, and the buyers of the present book can obtain a copy of the second edition, as long as the supply lasts, by contacting the authors.

Naturally, the authors have been able to give only a brief summary of the highlights of each paper. An attempt was made to treat each subject in one chapter only, but a few cases of overlap of topics among two different chapters have been unavoidable. In general, the readers are encouraged to locate and read the original papers for a deeper and better understanding of their contents. The book is not a textbook in its traditional sense, and it may be more correctly viewed as a reference book in the field of aluminium electrolysis. It focuses on the fundamentals of the process, while some practical aspects are also included. In this way it is different from the commonly used book “Aluminium Smelter Technology” by Kai Grjotheim and Barry J. Welch, who emphasised the chemical technology of the process, without citing any specific literature references. It is hoped that the present book will be of value for people working in academic institutions as well as in the primary aluminium industry and also for readers less deeply involved in the fundamentals of the Hall-Héroult process.

The authors acknowledge the many valuable comments and suggestions made by Bill Frank and Warren Haupin, who have read the manuscript, and they also acknowledge the financial guarantee given by the SINTEF organization, Trondheim.