The minerals industry represents a wide number of applications for the use of ultrasound at commercial scale. Such applications range from precious metal extraction from ores to impurity removal in Alumina production.

Prosonix Prosonitron TM Sonocrystallization technology has major value in the minerals industry and is used by major Alumina companies throughout the world, as is demonstrated in our Press Releases.

Alumina is principally manufactured using the common Bayer process and is employed at over 50 alumina refineries worldwide, with total production exceeding 60 million tonnes in 2005. Demand for alumina and related products show continued growth over the long term. Cost effective solutions that can increase production from existing assets are therefore highly prized. Hence any cost effective method of increasing the productivity of an existing facility is highly attractive.

Importantly, being of a small footprint and consuming minimal power in its ability to achieve significant process and productivity benefits with minimal running costs, the Prosonix Prosonitron TM sonocrystallization technology meets all the requirements for sustainable development, a key industry driver in the 21st Century.

The continual removal from the Bayer liquor of impurities carried through from the digestion of bauxite ore, is a key productivity-limiting step. Inefficient impurity removal, often linked to the presence of other ore related organic contaminants, limits the concentration of caustic that can be used in the facility. Using a higher caustic concentration is highly beneficial as it allows more bauxite to be processed per fixed reactor volume, and hence more alumina can be produced from the facility.

The technology works by significantly increasing the frequency of nucleation events in the waste liquor stream compared to current operation. Each nucleation event gives rise to a site for an impurity crystal to form. Through the use of the technology, impurity crystal formation and subsequent removal is greatly enhanced. Importantly, the issue of organic contaminants inhibiting impurity crystal growth and formation, and therefore their removal, is minimised.

This is a cost effective approach and simple to retrofit into any existing facility combined with it having no moving parts, little or no pressure drop, and requiring no chemical additives or operator intervention it is a highly sought after process intensification technology for Alumina production.

Prosonix technology represents the ideal solution to one of the key productivity limiting issues of increasing the rate of impurity removal.