Alumina technologist and rare earths explorer ABx Group’s 83 per cent owned subsidiary, Alcore has received an initial $3.3 million of an almost $7.6 million grant to support the development of an aluminium bath recycling plant at Bell Bay in Tasmania.
The $7,582,966 in funding forms part of the Federal Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative, or “MMI” and will also be used to support the ongoing construction of a similar pilot plant on NSW’s Central Coast.
The MMI program provides matched funding support for large-scale manufacturing projects that offer sector-wide benefits that are in the national interest.
Despite Alcore already launching works to establish an aluminium smelting pilot plant in NSW the company is planning a production plant in Tasmania owing to its proximity to a major aluminium smelter and the ready supply of waste product.
A waste product from an aluminium smelter called "excess bath" will be used in the pilot plant to recover fluorine and turn it into hydrogen fluoride. The hydrogen fluoride will then undergo additional reactions in the industrial facility to produce aluminium fluoride - a lucrative chemical used in the smelting of aluminium in addition to its use in ceramic glazes and enamels.
The pharmaceutical, food and beverage sectors are also touted as potential markets for Alcore’s product and the company says in the future the material could be used as a separator material for lithium-ion batteries.
The company argues Australia is yet to host any active aluminium fluoride plants and must import the material for all of its current needs.
ABx through its subsidiary is developing what it calls the “Alcore process” which recovers fluorine from an array of resources, including waste materials, to produce aluminium fluoride. Producing oleum, a highly concentrated sulfuric acid, is the first step in the Alcore process. Oleum is then reacted with the excess bath to extract the fluorine from which aluminium fluoride is produced.
ABx has to-date been fine tuning the Alcore process with engineering partner BFluor Chemicals.
As part of the process, Alcore recently commissioned three reactors in a technology centre on the NSW Central Coast. According to the company, two of the reactors are capable of producing enough oleum for its bath tests whilst the third device will be used to review a larger range of processes.
After tying down the first phase of funding ABx Group CEO, Dr Mark Cooksey said: “Receiving this initial $3.3m grant funding is an exciting milestone for Alcore and provides further certainty to the construction of the pilot plant on the NSW Central Coast, which is already underway.”
According to ABx, 1.2 million tonnes of aluminium fluoride is produced each year and the industry is worth about US$1.5 billion under a commodity price of about US$1000 to US$1800 per tonne.
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By Matt Birney
