N.Z. Carbon Anodes Industry Possible

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31728, 11 July 1968, Page 16

N.Z. Carbon Anodes Industry Possible

New Zealand could produce carbon anodes for the aluminium smelter at Bluff as another new industry, said Dr A. M. Kennedy, dean of the faculty of engineering and professor of chemical engineering at the University of Canterbury.

“It takes .6 to .71b of carbon to produce 11b of aluminium by this process—6o,ooo to 70,000 tons of carbon anodes for every 100,000 tons of aluminium,” said Professor Kennedy. “That’s an awful lot of carbon.” Professor Kennedy said he expected Comalco would import anodes, probably from petroleum carbon, at the outset but he hoped New Zealand would eventually supply them, using coal as the raw material.

Professor S. R. Siemon initiated research on this when he founded the Canterbury chemical engineering department Dr T. Hagyard and Dr J. B. Stott have continued it

Experiments with New Zealand coals were technically promising though not large enough to prove feasibility. “You may be sure this work will now be stepped up,” said Professor Kennedy. The aluminium smelter would be an electro-chemical industry involving engineers of all descriptions.

Professor Kennedy said he hoped there would be opportunities for New Zealanders. Chemical engineers would be needed and the Canterbury output would rise considerably about the time the smelter started. There was an intake of 36 this year and probably all of

them would graduate with training in the chemical engineering aspects of the aluminium industry and the feed systems for the electrolytic process. “About 20 per cent of our research effort is electrochemical so we are deeply interested in the smelter proposals,” said Professor Kennedy.