Ionic liquids have been shown capable of reducing aluminum trichloride to solid aluminum at 3kw-hrs per kg of Al(s) produced instead of the current ~15kw-hr/kg. However, this would seem to neglect the fact that bauxite is aluminum trioxide not trichloride. This is no small detail and leads me to wonder if it is an insurmountable hurdle to the widescale adoption. Has this technology been implemented (or slated for implementation) on an industrial scale? If not, what holds it back?
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I wonder what the cost of the ionic liquid and conversion to chloride is relative to the cryolite/alumina method. – Jason Patterson Dec 14 '14 at 02:18
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I think you are misunderstanding the article linked in the question.
In the process described in the article, the starting material is A360 aluminum metal alloy.
The goal is to make very pure aluminum metal from impure aluminum metal.
The process is an electrolysis process.
$$\ce{Al(anode) + 7AlCl_4^{−} -> 4Al2Cl_7^{−} + 3e-}$$
$$\ce{4Al2Cl_7^{−} + 3e- -> Al(cathode) + 7AlCl_4^{−}}$$
The existing industry techniques referred to by the article as requiring ~15kw-hr/kg are also for refining impure aluminum metal to yield high purity aluminum. This number is not referring to purification from bauxite. The "three layer process" is one of the existing refining techniques, and it does involve ionic liquids, but the electrolyte is liquid only at high temperature.
DavePhD
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Nice answer. Do you know if refining of Bauxite has been done with ionic liquids? – Dale Dec 14 '14 at 20:23
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It isn't being done on an industrial scale, but it is being investigated. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/264695026_Preliminary_investigation_of_ionic_liquids_utilization_in_primary_aluminum_production – DavePhD Dec 14 '14 at 23:41