The use of copper has become the standard cathodic solution in the aluminium industry. With the correct design, it has demonstrated to improve the current distribution in the metal, reduce cathode voltage drop (CVD) and pot voltage and finally reduce the energy consumption per tonne of aluminium produced. Ready-to-Use cathodes (RuC) are using only copper inside the cathode block instead of the rodded steel bar with copper inserts, while using only 10-20% of the metal volume. Due to the lower metal volume, the wearable cathode material is increased for longer life-time, and the rodding process can be skipped. The amount of copper is a design criterion, which affects the electrical resistance of the cathode assembly (CVD), the magneto-hydro-dynamic (MHD) stability, current efficiency and energy saving per tonne of aluminium. The heat balance will be computed and optimized by modelling, and together with RuC the optimized lining design will be provided.
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