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This demonstration study shows how to retrofit a ten years old "past prime if not obsolete" 500 kA
cell technology to make it an up-to-date `innovative' 600 kA cell technology. It highlights the huge
potential capacity creep that is present in even fairly recent cell designs. A more concrete example is
the recently published results of the DX cell technology, which now operates at 370 kA, while
designed only a few years ago to operate at 340 kA [17, 18].
The authors also hope that this demonstration study will highlight the value of using mature state-
of-the-art mathematical models to carry out such studies. Those exact same models, used by the
majority of the groups actively developing high amperage cell technology today, are available to the
whole aluminium industry through GeniSim Inc.

References
[1] M. Dupuis, Thermo-Electric Design of a 400 kA Cell using Mathematical Models: A Tutorial,
Light Metals, TMS, (2000), 297-302.
[2] M. Dupuis, Thermo-Electric Design of a 500 kA Cell, ALUMINIUM 79(7/8) (2003), 629-631.
[3] M. Dupuis, Thermo-Electric Design of a 740 kA Cell, Is There a Size Limit, ALUMINIUM
81(4) (2005), 324-327.
[4] M. Dupuis and D. Richard, Study of the Thermally-Induced Shell Deformation of High
Amperage Hall-Héroult Cells, Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Light Metal, COM, (2005),
35-47.
[5] M. Dupuis, and V. Bojarevics, Comparing the MHD cell stability of an aluminium reduction cell
at different metal pad height and ledge thickness, COM, (2006), 479-497.
[6] M. Dupuis, V. Bojarevics and D. Richard, MHD and pot mechanical design of a 740 kA cell
Aluminium 82, (2006) 5, 442-446.
[7] Qi, X. et al., Successful commercial operation of NEUI400 potline, Light Metals, TMS, (2010),
359-363.
[8] D. Lv et al., New progress on application of NEUI400 aluminium reduction cell technology,
Light Metals, TMS, (2011), to be published.
[9] D. Lv et al., Development of NEUI500 high energy efficiency aluminium reduction cell
technology, Light Metals, TMS, (2011), to be published.
[10] M. Dupuis and V. Bojarevics, Weakly Coupled Thermo-Electric and MHD Mathematical
Models of an Aluminium Electrolysis Cell, Light Metals, TMS, (2005), 449-454.
[11] J. Chaffy, B. Langon and M. Leroy, Device for Connection Between Very High Intensity
Electrolysis Cells for the Production of Aluminium Comprising a Supply Circuit and an
Independent Circuit for Correcting the Magnetic Field, US patent no 4,713,161, (1987).
[12] V. Bojarevics and K. Pericleous, Solution for the metal-bath interface in aluminium electrolysis
cells, Light Metals, TMS, (2009), 569-594.
[13] M. Dupuis, Development and application of an ANSYS based thermo-electro-mechanical
anode stub hole design tool, Light Metals, TMS, (2010), 433-438.
[14] M. Dupuis, Development and application of an ANSYS based thermo-electro-mechanical
collector bar slot design tool, Light Metals, TMS, (2011), to be published.
[15] G. E. Homley, and D. P. Ziegler Cathode collector bar, US patent no 6,231,745, (2001).
[16] M. Dupuis and H. Côté, Dyna/Marc 1.9 User's guide, (2006).