Topic: Aluminum Refinery. (Read 2852 times)

thepaan · « **on:** August 22, 2011, 07:25:42 am »

I'm really irritated by the native aluminum since it is never found naturally, and I got to researching the production method quite a bit. I'm fairly certain this has not been added so I modded my own DF to be able to do it and want to share it with everyone.

I realize that there are some who dislike the idea of being able to refine aluminum. It is noted in the raw that a major reason for not putting it in is the melting temperature of aluminum is 2000*C. While that may be true, the production process actually takes advantage of methods of lowering the melting temperature to about 1000*C, which is well within the range of magma smelting. The other major reason is, I believe, the lack of electricity. Dwarves already have many technologies more impressive than electricity, and I don't think it is much of a stretch to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. If you don't like that flavor, I could call it magic. Anyway, the bottom line is I don't have a problem with it.

To keep aluminum worth it's value, I tried to make it sufficiently complicated to produce.
The first step is the Bayer process whereby a slurry of crushed bauxite is mixed with lye (not exactly the same kind of lye made from burning wood, but let's say it is anyway) and heated to a mere 175*C. The aluminum oxide, or alumina, is skimmed off then fed through several filters. For my take on this, the bauxite will have to be milled into powder at a standard milling location. The powder and lye produce an alumina bar and a toxic red mud. Dealing with red mud is Fun.
The second step is the Hall-Héroult process whereby crushed alumina is mixed into a cryolite/alumina solution. A combination of electrolysis and heat cause the aluminum to sink to the bottom where it can be collected. A Hall-Héroult cell is fairly large so I made the workshop 5x5 instead of 3x3. Also, most of it is not passable. The cell is made of coke-covered iron anodes immersed in a ceramic-lined container with an iron cathode. I added magnetite, copper and a mechanism for the hand-waved mechanical-to-electrical conversion. The idea is that the dwarf sits there and hand-cranks this thing until the aluminum comes out. In the actual Hall-Héroult process the carbon anode is consumed so I added coke to the reaction. There is both a magma and regular version of the cell which requires: two coke, an iron bar, a ceramic pot (non-absorbing), cryolite, an alumina bar (couldn't make it use powder), a copper bar, a magnetite, a mechanism, and any building material. The reaction produces aluminum from alumina and coke.

Pan's Aluminum:

1) Remove native aluminum from: inorganic_stone_mineral.txt

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2) Add aluminum oxide and red mud to: inorganic_other.txt

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

3) Add the following tag to earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain in: inorganic_other.txt

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

4) Add crushing, bayer, and hall-houroult processes to: reaction_other.txt

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

5) Add hall-heroult cells to: building_custom.txt

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

6) Add permissions to dwarves in: entity_default.txt

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thanks to Kweri and Hugo_The_Dwarf for the modding help, and thanks to Dienes for the additional red mud info

.

theblank · « **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2011, 08:27:41 am »

I'm impressed by the research you did and how well you've made it fit into Dwarf Fortress. I've been wanting more actually chemistry reactions rather than alchemy in the game, this will be a good start.

_DivideByZero_ · « **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2011, 09:55:23 am »

Hey, this is like a better and more detailed process than the Aluminum process I made in my mod. Granted, you've done a lot more research than I have. Good work!

Jake · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2011, 10:12:36 am »

Well-researched, and an interesting complement to the Plastics mod. However, if I might make one suggestion, a custom workshop and reaction to produce crushed bauxite would probably be more realistic; isn't that stuff rather nasty if ingested or inhaled?

wilovy · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2011, 11:05:39 am »

Great research and excellent mod, I tested myself just a few moments ago. I forged a barrel, a bin and a door from aluminum bars, but the dwarfs placed the bin in the aluminum bars stockpile, not on the furniture one, and the door and barrel never got moved from the forge, maybe there is some code to put in the stockpile section? I don't know, I'm new to modding, still is a great thing to put new and more realistic reactions in the game.

Edit: Generated another world and the furniture stockpile worked perfectly this time.

Hugo_The_Dwarf · « **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2011, 01:48:33 pm »

So this is why you where trying to powder bauxite and needed all that help

nicely done. This will make the more hardcore and realism players happy.

Quietust · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2011, 02:34:51 pm »

Quote from: wilovy on August 22, 2011, 11:05:39 am

the dwarfs placed the bin in the aluminum bars stockpile, not on the furniture one

The bin probably got assigned to the bars stockpile so that more bars could be stored inside it.

thepaan · « **Reply #7 on:** August 23, 2011, 07:28:19 am »

Quote from: Hugo_The_Dwarf on August 22, 2011, 01:48:33 pm

So this is why you where trying to powder bauxite and needed all that help nicely done. This will make the more hardcore and realism players happy.

Yes. Thanks for the help

.

Re: the sorting: I'm not really sure because I didn't alter the existing aluminum; I only altered the method used to acquire it.

Re: the custom rock crusher: I considered making another building to mill the bauxite and alumina, but decided it was more trouble than its worth. If one were to decide that a different building is required, then, additionally, a method for producing the correct type of lye should used, and the iron requirement of the Hall-Héroult cell should be changed to steel (I didn't want to exclude those without iron flux from this process). Feel free to alter my example as desired

Rhenaya · « **Reply #8 on:** August 23, 2011, 11:47:06 am »

i have done some minor mod too http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=3953
it just adds the reactions and stuff you need to make aluminium via the new "alchemists workshop"... oh and you dont need to overwrite or edit any existing file except to add reactions to the entity :p

Deon · « **Reply #9 on:** August 23, 2011, 05:24:07 pm »

Looks awesome! It will definitely go into my Wasteland mod once I get back into modding, thanks to JediaKyrol for sending me a link to this thread.

Dienes · « **Reply #10 on:** August 24, 2011, 04:15:11 am »

Looks neat. One idea would be to change the red mud to have a melting point near water so it would be a liquid most of the time. Then it could cause a contact syndrome like moderate pain, blisters, or swelling to simulate it having a ph similar to bleach. I would expect this to add Fun to storage and disposal.

thepaan · « **Reply #11 on:** August 24, 2011, 05:23:10 am »

Quote from: Dienes on August 24, 2011, 04:15:11 am

Looks neat. One idea would be to change the red mud to have a melting point near water so it would be a liquid most of the time. Then it could cause a contact syndrome like moderate pain, blisters, or swelling to simulate it having a ph similar to bleach. I would expect this to add Fun to storage and disposal.

Oh, I dunno about all that: The biggest reason why red mud is a problem IRL, is because the PH is something like 13. A balanced soil PH of about 7 allows most plants to grow. While some variation exists among plant species, allowing a slightly higher or lower PH from 5 to 9 (IIRC), it is unheard of for a plant to exist in such an extreme condition as what red mud presents. Because no plant life is compatible with red mud, its disposal presents a problem. If there was a way to mod it so that it has the effect of killing all plant life in a certain proximity, and maybe even all plant life within proximity of red mud contaminated water, then I would like to add that. But, I do not think it possible.

nanomage · « **Reply #12 on:** August 24, 2011, 07:39:24 am »

Not to offend your mod and the research you had put in it, but i just feel obliged to mention that native aluminum mineral does actually exist, albeit being extremely rare.
It's quite a popular idea here in the forums that native aluminum is fantastic, but it is not and it's quite feasible to suggest that dwarves could be able to gather it and tell it apart from other metals.

http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/621

kwd1968 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 24, 2011, 10:56:47 am »

was just wondering, all the reagent calls you have for bars are all for 1 bar not the usual 150. Does your mod make a whole lot of alumina as a result or does it work as intended?

Dienes · « **Reply #14 on:** August 24, 2011, 05:21:47 pm »

Quote from: thepaan on August 24, 2011, 05:23:10 am

Oh, I dunno about all that: The biggest reason why red mud is a problem IRL, is because the PH is something like 13. A balanced soil PH of about 7 allows most plants to grow. While some variation exists among plant species, allowing a slightly higher or lower PH from 5 to 9 (IIRC), it is unheard of for a plant to exist in such an extreme condition as what red mud presents. Because no plant life is compatible with red mud, its disposal presents a problem. If there was a way to mod it so that it has the effect of killing all plant life in a certain proximity, and maybe even all plant life within proximity of red mud contaminated water, then I would like to add that. But, I do not think it possible.

Killing plant life would be an accurate treatment of red mud but I'm pretty sure its not possible as DF stands now. Maybe some kind of trickery with interactions when they are added will be possible. It should kill fish and stuff too since its far too alkaline to support aquatic life.

However exposure to red mud is quite harmful to people and animals if not quickly cleaned. In 2010 there was the failure of a red mud containment reservoir at the Ajka Alumina Plant in Hungary. The red mud flooded a nearby town and those exposed who were not able to clean themselves suffered severe chemical burns. One article I read said a man had suffered serious burns getting a ladder to move his family to the roof and was bleeding after only a few minutes of exposure. While I imagine dwarves would not be chest deep in red mud like those people, getting it on them should have some effect. As you have it now the only risk is the miasma it generates when rotting, right?

Also it is more accurately a liquid since it is usually a sludge of about 20-30% solid particles and flows easily. The reaction could also produce 2 buckets of red mud instead of 1 since modern alumina plants 1-2 times the alumina extracted in waste and a dwarven one could easily make more. Maybe have 2 required buckets and sometimes produce a second bucket of sludge.

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Author Topic: Aluminum Refinery. (Read 2852 times)

thepaan

Aluminum Refinery.

theblank

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

_DivideByZero_

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

Jake

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

wilovy

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

Hugo_The_Dwarf

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

Quietust

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

thepaan

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

Rhenaya

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

Deon

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

Dienes

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

thepaan

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

nanomage

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

kwd1968

Re: Aluminum Refinery.

Dienes

Re: Aluminum Refinery.