LP bricks; a new generation of refractories that meet higher demands in anode baking furnaces

There is a tendency in anode baking furnaces to reduce the thickness of the flue walls; the main purpose of this reduction is to increase the size of anodes (spacing). If the thickness of the flue wall is reduced with 10 % the life time of the flue wall will be reduced by up to 20%. In other cases the height of the flue walls will increase, so the refractory has to withstand more severe conditions and the life time will be reduced as well. To overcome these problems, Gouda Vuurvast developed a new generation of bricks with reduced permeability and low alkali content. The lower permeability prevents alkali and fluoride containing gasses to penetrate in the brick. The lower alkali content gives a better starting point of the new flue walls and more "penetrated" alkali can be absorbed by these bricks before the flue walls will collapse. The lower permeability and the lower alkali content will result in a longer life time of the refractories. A number of field tests with this new generation of LP 50S bricks are running.