AMP - Advanced Manufacturing Park

Inertius Ltd is a privately owned company formed to commercialise the inert anode technology developed at the University of Leeds using Carbon Trust funding and resulting in patent PCT/GB2006/002147.

Current refining of aluminium is done in the Hall-Heroult process using a large bath of molten cryolite salt, and utilising carbon anodes and electrodes to reduce and purify the alumina. The process is expensive, uses large amounts of energy and releases carbon dioxide and perfluorocarbon (PFC’s i.e. CF4 and C2F6) emissions into the atmosphere.

It is estimated that the current refining of aluminium accounts for 100million tonnes of carbon emissions into the atmosphere annually and the industry is coming under increasing political and legislative pressure as the world seeks greener solutions to protect the planet.

An inert anode can be used instead of the carbon anode and has the potential to be cheaper, improve productivity and totally remove the carbon and PFC emissions. Similar opportunities exist for other metals particularly titanium and niobium.

Inertius has also evaluated the use of these materials as bipolar electrodes (anodic and cathodic) in a multipolar cell that can potentially achieve energy savings in excess of the best achievable with current technology whilst eliminating CO2 and PFC emissions, and avoiding the need for disposal or storage of hazardous anode waste products that the aluminium industry generates.