The Bayer processis the industrial route toproduce

alumina,named after its creator Karl Josef Bayerin

1887. This wasone year after the simultaneous
invention of the electrolytic process by Hall and
Hroult tomanufacture alumiium from alumina.

The Bayerprocess was implemented for the first

time in 1893, by thePure Alumina Company,in
Gardanne(France), chosen for itssetting close to
both bauxite and the coal necessary for thermal
energy.
rinding of Bauxite
The mineral bauxite is firstly
crushed to form grains with a
diameter of less than30 mmin
hammer crushers.
It is thenmixed with liquor
recycled from the down-
streamprocess and then ground
further toobtain fine grains with a
Bauxite milling
diameter of less than 315m.
This grinding is necessary to
increase the contact surface
between the liquor and the bauxite
The recycled liquor comes from the filtration stageafter
and to improve the yield of the
hydrateprecipitation.
digestion.
This liquor is enriched in soda (NaOH) and lime (CaO) before the
grinding stageto aid digestionby making the li-
quormoreaggressive towardsthebauxite.
The permanent recycling of liquor and more generally of water, is
the source of the synonym for the Bayer process: theBayer
Cycle.
igestion of Bauxite
The bauxite-liquor slurry that results from
grinding is preheated then sent into
digesters for several hours.
The temperature and the pressure at
which the slurry isdigested depends on
the bauxite and on the type of process.
The alumina is dissolved in the liquor in
the form of sodium aluminate while the
other compounds are deposited in the Digesters
form of insoluble scale.
During the digestion stage of the Bayer process, two phenomena occur:
i) Dissolution of the alumina contained in the bauxite
ii) Formation of solid residues: so called, "red mud" or bauxite residue.
Here is the main reaction of the Bayer
process:

The digestion conditions displace the balance to the right and so the
alumina contained in the bauxite can be dissolved.
The mud is made up of the insoluble bodies coming from the bauxite and
from the solid desilication products that are formed during digestion.
tling and Washing of Residues
The objective of this stage is to separate
the two slurry phases :
I. The liquor containing sodium
aluminate
II. The residue from which the alumina
has been extracted
SETTLING
The residue and the liquor that make up Settling tanks
the slurry are separated by settling.
The solid particles fall to the bottom of the settling tank (which has a very
large diameter) and are extracted by pumping towards the mud wash. The
floating liquor is filtered then sent to be precipitated.
RESIDUEWASHING
here are two objectives in washing the residue after its extraction from the
settler:
I. To recuperate the sodium aluminate, which will be used again in the
Bayer cycle.
II.After beingthe
Cleanse washed, the
residue ofsoda
sodacontent
so that in the be
it can residue is in
stored very low andit is
a natural
then called inert residue. It is simply bauxite without its alumina
environment.
content.
ystallization of Hydrates
This stage marks the beginning of the
white side of the process. The sodium
aluminate liquor, cleansed of the mud, is no
longer red. The precipitation or the
crystallization of the hydrate isknown as
PROCESS
decomposition.
The liquor is cooled, diluted with the water from
the red mud wash then sent into huge Crystallization tanks
thickening tanks (several thousands of cubic
metres).
The alumina hydrate slowly precipitates from tank to tank as the
temperature decreases. The floating suspension is recuperated in the last
thickening
The liquor tank.
is then filtered to separate the wet hydrate from the liquor
cleansed of alumina. This liquid is then sent to the bauxite digestion
where it will
In order to be enriched the
accelerate in soda and in lime.
nucleation of the hydrate, 90% of the wet
hydrate recuperated after filtration is recycled and used as a crystallization
seed.
The crystallization of the alumina hydrate (in the form of gibbsite) is a
complex stage of the process. The mechanisms of crystallization involve
nucleation, growth and agglomeration, which makes the operation
complicated.
several factors affect the balance and the speed of the precipitation:
The temperature, The soda concentration, The alumina hydrate
concentration and The gibbsite seed
alcination of Hydrate
PROCESS
Wet hydrate is calcined in rotary kilns (long
rotating furnaces that are slightly inclined).
Theseare the most suitabletype for the
preparation of calcined aluminas.
All of the characteristics of calcined alumina
are extremely variable and depend on the
conditions of calcination. Rotary kiln

Soda is the main impurityin alumina produced by the Bayer process and
this can be a hindrance for certain technical applications.Several
methods for soda extraction exist, such as hydrate washing or the use of
silica to manufacture an alumina with a very low soda content.
Calcined alumina is produced as particlesof white powder. These particles
comprise ofalpha alumina crystallite agglomerates, which typically vary
from 0.5 to 10 m in size. The higher the degree of calcination, the larger
the crystallite
Calcined size. can be produced with a wide range of surface areas
aluminas
and crystallite sizes which can thenbesold as-is or ground to produce
various particle size distributions. Common grinding methods include
continuous ball milling and air-jet milling. A more intense grinding method
isbatch ball-milling, or so called supergrinding, which can seperate the