> >Making 3.6cc of Al takes 3.6 /1000 * 12kWh = 0.04 kWh.  
> (Electricity is 
> >apparently 1/3 of the cost.)
> >
> >We get 0.03kWh back.
> >
> >Those numbers are by weight of course, by volume is far more 
> exciting.
> >Possibly produces too much waste to be a decent battery.
> 
> I remember doing a trip through the Tiwai Point smelter 
> (anglicised pronunciation Tea-why)and having to remove our 
> watches before going through the smelting plant. The smelting 
> cells run at low voltage and very high current (recall 
> something like 3v and thousands of amps) so the magnetic 
> fields are very high. The ore melts due to the effectively 
> short circuit current, leaving molten aluminium in the 
> bottom, and the slag from the ore floating to the top. Was 
> impressive stuff. 


They are impressive indeed.  Years ago I had someone want to track carbon
rods (barcoding), in part because they were getting lost.

Here's me thinking whiteboard marker size, and discovering these things were
about a metre wide.  Not sure how you'd lose that.  

They didn't get lost all that much, in use they gradually erode and get sent
out for refurbishing, so they really wanted to know how many times thru the
process they'd been.  Used metal barcode tags with really good glue (those
things get hot!).  

Then there was a slight cabling issue... solved by fibre optics.

Tony

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