A GMDH Approach to Modelling Gibbsite Solubility in Bayer Process Liquors

The most widely employed industrial process for producing alumina (Bayer process) involves the dissolution of available aluminium hydroxide minerals present in raw bauxite into high temperature sodium hydroxide solutions. On cooling of the solution, or liquor in the industrial vernacular, Al is precipitated from solution in the form of gibbsite (Al(OH)3). In order to optimise the process, a detailed knowledge of factors influencing gibbsite solubility is required, a problem that is confounded by the presence of liquor impurities. In this paper, the use of the Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) polynomial neural network for developing a gibbsite equilibrium solubility model for Bayer process liquors is discussed. The resulting predictive model appears to correctly incorporate the effects of liquor impurities and is found to offer a level of performance comparable to the most sophisticated phenomenological model presented to date.