ALCORE process reaches major milestone delivering 97% fluorine recovery

ABx Group is pleased to announce that its 83 per cent-owned subsidiary, ALCORE, has delivered exceptional results from its bath pilot batch reactor, increasing confidence in the technology's ability to operate continuously and at scale.

The reactor, which is located at the ALCORE Technology Centre on the NSW Central Coast, has been designed for the recovery of fluorine from aluminium smelter bath waste to produce high-value hydrogen fluoride.

Since the bath pilot batch reactor was commissioned in October 2023, ALCORE has conducted many test runs, typically processing approximately 10kg total of bath and sulfuric acid. ALCORE has reported steady increases in fluorine recovery through optimising particle size, reactor temperature, acid concentration and feed ratio.

The latest reactor results have seen ALCORE achieve 97 per cent fluorine recovery, improving upon the previous best of 93 per cent, which was already deemed very likely to be sufficient in a commercial plant. The new results provide more flexibility to optimise the operation of the commercial plant.

This headline 97 per cent recovery rate was delivered using the bath pilot batch reactor, followed by further manual processing of some product material in a separate furnace. In the Company's latest test run, the bath pilot batch reactor delivered 85 per cent fluorine recovery—the highest achieved from a single stage. The continuous pilot plant reactor will incorporate the two-stage design and will operate under similar processing conditions.

The higher fluorine recoveries achieved using particular process conditions confirmed the Company's theories on the factors that affect fluorine recovery. This further illustrates that ALCORE has developed excellent process understanding and provides great confidence for scale-up via a continuous pilot plant.

ABx Group Managing Director and CEO Mark Cooksey said, "I am thrilled to see ALCORE deliver such stellar results with near complete recovery of fluorine from aluminium smelter bath. Additionally, the fact that the results validated our theories demonstrates that ALCORE has an exceptionally strong understanding of the process, giving great confidence for ongoing scale-up."

Image credit: ABx Group website