Solios Pot Feeding System
Continuous feeding system for alumina transport from silo to pots
The Solios pot feeding system is engineered for robustness, reliability, and energy efficiency, ensuring optimal performance in demanding aluminium production environments. Designed as a tailor-made solution, it adapts seamlessly to various pot technologies and is perfectly suited for both greenfield installations and retrofits of existing potlines. This flexibility, combined with Fives’ deep process expertise, makes it a trusted choice for modern smelters worldwide.
Efficient potroom feed system: seamless horizontal transport to every pot
The control of alumina feed rate is made by use of rotary feeders and level sensors to ensure system is full and automatically refill pot hoppers when alumina is consumed. Some vibration screens allow to remove oversized material and foreign objects by self-cleaning. Alumina is gently transported from silo to pot storage hoppers by fluidized bed air slide.
Optimized Material Flow Across the Potroom
The horizontal transport system of Solios’ pot feeding solution is built to support continuous and efficient alumina distribution across the potroom. Engineered with precision, it includes fixed supports designed to absorb thermal expansion, fluidization air piping, and air slide sections that deliver material directly to each pot via dedicated feed chutes. The system also features ventilation cyclones for dust control, flexible discharge hoses, and GRP-insulated connections to ensure thermal integrity. For maintenance flexibility, each pot is equipped with a manual shut-off valve for fluidization air.
This infrastructure ensures reliable performance and adaptability in both new and existing aluminium smelters.
Operational advantages
- Minimal segregation and attrition
- High re-filling capacity
- Easy removable end-cover for maintenance
- Energy efficient transport thanks to low pressure fluidization system
- Homogeneous mixing of alumina in each pot thanks to high efficiency cyclones
- Continuous system with no need for level sensors in pot hoppers
- Insulated air slide section ensuring safe and isolated connection to each pot
