Alumina Production and the Textile Industry

Abstract

The Bayer process used today for the production of alumina was originally discovered in Saint Petereburg in Russia in the Tentelev Chemical Plant for supplying mordants to the textile industry. Bayer replaced the Le Chatelier process for preparing aluminum hydroxide invented in 1855 by the sintering process by his method for preparing aluminum hydroxide by seeding in 1888 then by leaching bauxite under pressure in 1892 to recover sodium hydroxide. The process was used unviserally for the treating of bauxite for supplying the growing aluminum industry by alumina.