Bayer process [SEP] product
Bayer process
The Bayer process is the principal industrial means of refining bauxite to produce alumina (aluminium oxide) and was developed by Carl Josef Bayer. Bauxite, the most important ore of aluminium, contains only 30–60% aluminium oxide (AlO), the rest being a mixture of silica, various iron oxides, and titanium dioxide. The aluminium oxide must be purified before it can be refined to aluminium metal.
Process.
Bauxite ore is a mixture of hydrated aluminium oxides and compounds of other elements such as iron
side-product of the Bayer process, the principal means of refining bauxite en route to alumina. The resulting alumina is the raw material for producing aluminium by the Hall–Héroult process. A typical bauxite plant produces one to two times as much red mud as alumina. This ratio is dependent on the type of bauxite used in the refining process and the extraction conditions.
There are over 60 manufacturing operations across the world using the Bayer process to make alumina from bauxite ore. Bauxite ore is mined, normally in open