Alumina is an extremely hard ceramic material, known for its resistance to abrasion, thermal shock resistance, and ability to tolerate harsh chemical conditions.
Refractories are produced by leaching bauxite with caustic soda to form alumina hydrate, which is then washed, filtered and calcined before finally being sintered into various high-tech products.
Activated alumina
Activated alumina is a porous form of aluminium oxide which can absorb and retain many different chemicals, gases, liquids and materials to provide gas and air purification applications. Desuden, activated alumina has also been found effective at eliminating contaminants such as fluoride from drinking water which has been known to cause bone disease.
Heating activated alumina releases all of its bound water and is considered “regenerated”, and this process may be repeated if necessary. Alumina desiccant’s high crush strength makes it suitable for handling and storage in harsh industrial environments.
As it absorbs moisture, alumina is an ideal material for electronic packaging. It protects sensitive electronics from corrosion or malfunction due to excess moisture while simultaneously helping prevent mold growth, mildew growth and other microbial growth.
FEECO’s Innovation Center houses a laboratory equipped with thermal and agglomeration testing on batch scale, as well as continuous process loop tests incorporating both methods. This unique facility provides the ideal setting for gathering relevant data, designing production processes and developing activated alumina suitable for your application. Reach out to us now to discover how our activated alumina products can enhance your process – contact us for a free quote and more information on any of our products – our experienced team are standing by!
Catalysts
Chemical production would take much longer without catalysts to complete. By reducing activation energy requirements for beginning reactions, catalysts allow chemical processes to progress quickly and more easily – meaning many processes would take years rather than days or weeks!
Catalysts are used in numerous industrial processes, from food production and packaging to pharmaceuticals, biofuels and plastics production. Catalytic converters in cars also employ catalysts as emissions reduction mechanisms while our bodies utilize enzymes as catalysts allowing rapid chemical reactions within us.
Catalysts come in many forms, from metals and ceramics to organic molecules. Commercially produced catalysts typically rely on precious metals like platinum and palladium; however, their costs and toxicity often make them inaccessible, prompting researchers to look for sustainable alternatives.
Pseudoboehmite alumina is an excellent catalyst support material, due to its high purity and surface area. You can customize it for specific applications by altering key parameters like porosity, bulk density, acidity and particle size.
Alumina can absorb large quantities of water, making it an excellent adsorbent for use in air purification systems. For instance, formaldehyde can be removed from the atmosphere using this material. In petrochemical industries it’s often employed in catalytic cracking processes to break apart large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones for cracking purposes.
F-200
Interra Global is proud to be an approved supplier of BASF’s F-200 Granular Activated Alumina Granules, designed with specially engineered spheres that preferentially absorb highly polar molecules for use in water purification, air pollution control and other environmental applications. This exceptional material serves a multitude of environmental functions.
Ford has not revealed their intentions with respect to the trademark for F-200 it recently filed, though we predict they likely won’t use it on an electric vehicle (EV). After all, it already uses Lightning as its high-speed electric pickup name; they probably wouldn’t want another unrelated moniker like “F-200”. Skønt, there could be another use – such as being a chassis cab version of the F-150 with heavier payload and tow ratings than its siblings.
Applications
Alumina can be utilized in numerous reactions due to its thermal robustness and chemical stability. Its surface chemistry can also be precisely tailored with raw materials selection and processing conditions; acidic surface groups enhance chemical reactions across many categories – for instance BASF’s alumina catalysts demonstrate exceptional performance for dehydration of alcohols into olefins production – an integral process within many petrochemical value chains.
Olefins can then be converted to polyethylene and various other products via further reactions, with BASF’s alumina catalysts tailor-made to meet specific customer requirements.
BASF’s alumina catalysts have also proven their worth in acid-catalyzed dehydration of alcohols to create ethylene, an important process in many industrial value chains. Their high activity and selectivity make these alumina catalysts the ideal partner in this reaction process.
Alumina is an ideal material to serve as the catalyst carrier in gas separation processes, unlike silica gels or molecular sieves which disintegrate at lower regeneration temperatures or when exposed to water.
Mechanical strength of alumina extrudates is often an important consideration in these applications, as it can impact pressure drop and mass transport. BASF offers an array of mechanically strong extrudates suitable for such uses – tablets, spheres and innovative ring-type extrudates are among the available choices – to meet these challenges.