4)   You are strongly encouraged to follow some of the Youtube videos such as this one to prepare your slides.

TOTAL MARKS: The total mark for this assignment is 100, including 80 for written report and 20 for presentation. with a detailed breakdown for each question shown from page 3. However, the penalty could apply, on the condition that:

A similarity larger than 25% reported for each report and/or presentation by the Turnitin system in the Moodle. For a larger similarity implying a potential plagiarism, the relevant reports would be sent to and further investigated by the Chief Examiner (Prof Sankar Bhattacharya, Head of the Department) and even the Associate Dean for Education by following Monash’s academic integrity policy. A final zero mark for the whole subject could be granted to the students who are involved in the confirmed plagiarism.

INDIVIDUAL MARK MODERATION:  The  individual  marks  within  a  team  will  be moderated by peer assessment in CatMe. The link for CatMe is shown below. You need to use your Monash Authcate to sign in.

https://catme.org/login/index

LAYOUT OF WRITTEN REPORT

1) Cover Page (with the signature from each member)

2) Teamwork ethics statement* (max halfa page)

3) Answers to Parts A-C.

4) References

5) Appendix supporting detailed calculations, spreadsheets, diagram, etc. Note: Calculations MUST be easy to follow and check

6) Minimum two group meeting minutes (with the signature from each participant)

*: For group work ethics statement in the group report, you need to address how you and your teammates to work cooperatively; how and how often to communicate to check the progress of each part/each member; how to deal with different opinions and how to achieve the final decisions, etc.

Note that - the items 1, 2, 5 and 6 are NOT included in the eight-page limit for the main report. The item 5 for the appendix has a page limit of 20.

POJECT BACKGROUND

High-purity alumina (HPA) is a high-value form of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) with at least 99.9% purity, priced between USD $10,000 to 40,000/t (3N for 99.9% purity - 5N for 99.999% purity) on increasing purity. The global market for HPA is projected to reach $15.2 billion by 2030, growing from USD $3.8 billion in 2028 due to the demand for electric vehicles (EV) lithium- ion batteries, LED and semiconductor substrates. HPA production is expected to rise from 35,000 tonnes per annuum (tpa) to 272,000 tpa by 2028 with a forecasted deficit of about 50,000 tpa.

PART A: Literature  Review  on  the  Market  Size  of  HPA  in  Various  Countries  (15 MARKS)

In this part, each team needs to review the market sizes of HPA for the countries listed below. For each country, you need to

A1) review and include the historic data for last five years;                                       (4 marks)

A2) make your own graphs to visualise the difference between the two countries and the historic trend of each country too. A short discussion on the difference is also needed. (4 marks)

A3) review the key applications of HPA in each country. List the areas where the HPA is used and if possible, the market size/demand for each key area where HPA is used. The grade requirement for each application should also be addressed.                                       (5 marks)

A4) discuss the size difference between these areas and address the future demand trend for each area.                            (2 marks)

Minimum half of a page and maximum one page is required for this part.

PART B: Detailed Literature Review on the Alkoxide Process (30 MARKS)

Traditionally, HPA is produced via an alkoxide process, using high-grade aluminium metal as feedstock, which is produced from an energy-intense, high-carbon footprint three-step process comprising bauxite mining,  alkaline  pressure  leaching  of bauxite  by  Bayer process,  and molten-salt electrolysis of smelter-grade alumina (SGA) to aluminium metal. The resultant aluminium metal is then processed by the alkoxide process, comprising the dissolution of the metal in alcohol, followed by hydrolysis to produce hydrated alumina that is finally calcined to produce HPA.

In this part, you and your team members are required to perform the following tasks:

B1) A detailed review of the entire process from the feedstock bauxite preparation to final HPA product. Draw a clear flow diagram with the inclusion of individual steps. Your starting point is the natural minerals delivered to your plant, and the end step is the final HPA product that is stored in your plant. For the transport of feedstock into your plant and the transport of HPA out of your plant, they are out of the scope.                          (10 marks)

B2) For the individual steps shown in your process flowsheet, describe the details for its input compositions, operating conditions including temperature and pressure, output products, and if possible, the type of the equipment. You also need to describe the purpose of each step - for instance, in the step of XX, the impurity elements including XX, XX and XX are removed. Apart from the text description, a table such as the one provided below is needed to summarise all the steps.                                                                                                                  (20 marks)

PART C: A Rudimentary Mass and Energy balance fortheAlkoxide Process (35 MARKS)

C1) Based on the process flowsheet and conditions summarised in Part B, you are now required to perform a rudimentary mass balance to quantify the mass flow within the entire process, including the yield of HPA on the mass basis ofa virtual plant with an annual input of 100,000 tonnes bauxite, and the mass yields of by-products. Note that, in case the operating conditions are unable to find in the literature, you need to make a reasonable assumption on the conditions. These assumptions must be clearly articulated in your report.                                   (20 marks)

C2) Based on the operating temperatures summarised in Part B, you need to determine the energy consumption for the production of one tone HPA from the traditional alkoxide process. Here again, in case the operating temperature is missing for some steps, you need to make a reasonable assumption on it. These assumptions need to be articulated in your report. (15 marks)

Note that, for Part C, you can use Excel or Aspen Plus for the calculation. In either case, you don’t need to summarise the calculation files. However, you should keep them until the end of the semester in case we need to ask for your files.

PART D: A 10-min video Summary of the Key Findings (30 MARKS)