HUNGARIAN ALUMINA PLANT NEARS COMPLETION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600390219-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 219
• Publication Date: May 11, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
DATE OF
INFORMATION
DATE DIST. I/ ~8,y 1951
PUBLISHED Monthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED Budapest NO. OF PAGES 3
DATE
PUBLISHED Oct 1950
SUPPLEMENT TO
LANGUAGE Hungarian
i1UNGM TAN ALUMINA PT Arun NEARS COMPLETION
The construction workers of the Almasfuzito plant of the Danube Valley
Alumina Industry promised that the plant would be placed in service by 2 No-
vembcr 1950.
The plant changes the character of the Hungarian aluminum industry, in-
asmuch as more than half the bauxite produced in Hungary may now be processed
in Hungarian alumina plants. Before the liberation, Hungarian bauxite was ex-
ported; only 3 or 4 percent were processed in Hungarian plar`?s.
In general, the following factors determine the choice of a site for an
alumina plant; quality and location of bauxite and coal, and quality and quan-
tity of available water. The Danube Valley alumina plant, which will use 'che
Bayer process, was built with these requirements in mind. Since the bauxite
comes from Iskaszentgyorgy, the Bayer process has to be modified somewhat. In
size, the Almasfuzito plant is larger than either of the other two plants in
operation. In addition, the plant was planned in such a fashion that it may
be enlarged to twice its size. The site is connected with the Almasfuzito
railroad station by an industrial railroad line.
The bauxite found at Iskaszentgyorgy contains trihydrate, and there are
also other factors which require certain modifications of the Bayer process.
The equipment of the two existing plants is not suitable for the processing
of the Iskaszentgyorgy bauxite. Experiments have shown that rze precipitation
process, the most important operation in obtaining aluminum oxide, cannot be
carried out effectively. Consequently, changes had to be made in the bauxite
desiccating process at the Almasfuzito plant.
The large units of the plant are as follows: an independent power plant,
an installation for the production of generator gas, a pump station supplying
the necessary water, and the equipment to manufacture the alumina.
The total capacity of the power plant is sufficient to supply the neces-
sary steam and power for the alumina plant, and to deliver some surplus power
to the national power network.
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The boilers are fired with low-grade coal, are built for medium pressures,
and are equipped with modern dross removers.
The generator utilizes the Koller system. The product, raw gas, is puri-
fied by an electric tar and oil separator and, thus, a very pure gas is ob-
tained. The by-product is ready for industrial use.
The waterworks is v..ry modern. The water of the Danube is relatively cool,
even in the summer, and it will be possible to keep the water, used for cooling,
at an even temperature.
When the bauxite is delivered from the mine, it has a moisture content of
17-22 percent. It is dumpel, and a lifting mechanism transports it to ware-
houses several stories high. The crushers are located on the lower level of
the warehouse so that, during the process, the bauxite follows a downward route.
Automatic equipment transports the bauxite to the cylindrical crushers. There
rough and fine crushers: The. precrushed bauxite is then forwarded to the
raw bauxite warehouse.
This warehouse is unique, both in size and transporting equipment, and
provides such perfect warehousing that hardly any alumina plant matches it.
The precrushed bauxite is either stored in this warehouse or forwarded
immediately to a stationary roast.-ng furnace, provided with rollers. These
furnaces are essentially the same as those used for the roasting of pyrite.
They are several stories high, cylindrical, and with partitions forming sev-
eral floors. The material is forwarded by a shovel-tyre installation, mounted
on a revolving axle. The material is, thus, slowly carried fron level to level,
through appropriate openings. The furnace is heated by generator gas, stream-
ing in from the opposite direction. As a result of the slow movement and con-
stant temperature, all particles are heated evenly, the water, mechanically
held in the :rystals, is evaporated completely, and the water of crystalliza-
tion is reduced uniformly. This procedure insures a good, final rate m;f pre-
cipitation.
Conveyer belts take the dried bauxite to one of the mills, where it is
ground to the consistency of cement. The bauxite is sorted in the mill by a
fan-sieve installation and is transported to silos. The silos have a suffi-
ciently large capacity to allow the storing of enough material for several
days, so that production will not be interrupted.. The bauxite is then weighed
and transported to large mixing tanks, where it is mixed with sodium hydroxide.
The mixture is pumped into autoclaves where coils heat it to a point where
the aluminum oxide and the hydroxide will form sodium bl.uminAte.
The mixture in the autoclaves is then forced into diluting tanks by
pressure. It then goes into Dorr precipitation tanks, several stories high.
There are five chambers in the tanks, and the mixture is slowly pushed from
chamber to chamber. The process results in the purification of the sodium alu-
minate solution. The solution is then drawn off, cooled, and forwarded to the
mixing tanks.
The'red precipitate, precipitated and separated in the Dorr tanks, is fil-
tered and washed.in one of the Kelly filters. It is lissolved, and the sodium
hydroxide in the solution is recovered for future use. This process s':aes for-
eign ewe. The pure sodium aluminate is cooled by three Krotig-type coolers
to the necessary temperature for further treatment.
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CONFIDENTIAL
The cooled sodium aluminate now goes into a mixer where the aluminum
hydroxide is separated. The aluminum hydroxide is pumped into a hydrosepara-
tor, and the aluminum hydroxides of various degrees of fineness are separated.
The hydroseparators are very-large tanks, equipped with mixing equipment. The
lighter precipitates and sedimliits can be separated from the heavier ones. The
precipitates whichihave a smaller specific gravity go back into the mixing tanks
and there facilitate th.. precipitation of the aluminum hydroxide which is pre-
sent in'the sodium aluminate solution. The heavier portion of the precipitation
is carried to one of the double Imperial filters.
These are rotary drums, covered with a filtering material which, because
of several partitions, filter, wash, and dry in one revolution. The filter
'first absorbs the sodium aluminate, and the aluminum hydroxide is separated
and left on the surface of the filtering agent. This"&'1 nrrn'.mva is to obtain
lide
washed with.water, and the. liquid. is then pumped off. The purpose
a purified and dl7 sln.;an- i hydrate on the filtv-rl The hydrate thra goes into
storage or into the eklcinating drums.
The calcinating drums are rotary drums which are lined with refractory
bricks equipped with recuperator pipin3. A temperpture of 1,300 degrees cen-
tigrade is reachffd with the generator gas, and the aluminum hydroxide loses
both the water which is mechanically held and the water of crystallization.
It leaves the calcinating drum as A1203, or alumina. To recover the large
amount of heat iR the alumina, it is dropped into the above-mentioned recup-
erator pipes. A stream of air to which the greater part of the heat is trans-
mitted is directed through these pipes from the opposite direction. This re-
sults in better utilization of the heat and in the cooling of the alumina to
the point where its transportation raises no special problems. The alumina is
then transported to dtorage places. Pneumatic equipment transports the mater-
ial to railroad tank cars. In Addition, there is mquipment underneath the
warehouses to permit the alumina to be drawn off directly into sacks.
It was pointed out above that the Imperial filters separate a sodium
aluminate solution. This solution is pumped into a Vogelbusch-type evaporator.
The evaporator concentrates the sodium hydroxide solution, which becomes di-
luted during the manufacturing proceBs.
A lake of a proximately one''million cubic meters also belongs to the
plant. The calc4fied red precipitate will be dumped here.
CO EIOENT1AI.
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