Alumina Solution

Alumina Solution is a fluid solution of Bauxite and Water. It is only used to produce Aluminum Scrap for further processing, and Batteries.

Obtaining

Recipe	Ingredients	Produced in	Products	Unlocked by
Alumina Solution	12 × Bauxite120 / min 18 × Water180 / min	Refinery 6 sec	12 × Alumina Solution120 / min 5 × Silica50 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement
Unpackage Alumina Solution	2 × Packaged Alumina Solution120 / min	Packager 1 sec	2 × Alumina Solution120 / min 2 × Empty Canister120 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement
Sloppy Alumina Alternate	10 × Bauxite200 / min 10 × Water200 / min	Refinery 3 sec	12 × Alumina Solution240 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement

The following shows different ways to produce 1 m³ Alumina Solution / second, or 60 m³/min:

Recipe	Bauxite /min (WP)	Net WP	Total Energy /item (MJ)	Space (m²)	Building counts
Default	60 (61.35)	47.77	21.91	(+43)	(+0.45)
Sloppy	50 (51.13)	51.13	25.15	50	0.25

Weighted Point is the weighted consumption rate which is calculated by: (resource consumption rate / maximum extraction rate) * 10,000. The lower the better.
Energy per item can be used to measure how much power is consumed for the entire production chain. The lower the better.
Space refers to building space, excluding belts and pipes. The lower the better.
Silica byproduct can be used to supplement 1/3 of the Silica usage for the next production step. Thus, resources are not wasted and some of the WP, Energy and space can be recovered.
- More resources, energy and space has to be spent to create Silica from 'fresh' resources.
- Silica is assumed to be produced using 'Cheap Silica' recipe.
Using Pure Aluminum Ingot together with the standard recipe allows the byproduct Silica produced to be used elsewhere, saving on the use of Raw Quartz.

Recipe	Ingredients	Produced in	Products	Unlocked by
Aluminum Scrap	4 × Alumina Solution240 / min 2 × Coal120 / min	Refinery 1 sec	6 × Aluminum Scrap360 / min 2 × Water120 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement
Battery	2.5 × Sulfuric Acid50 / min 2 × Alumina Solution40 / min 1 × Aluminum Casing20 / min	Blender 3 sec	1 × Battery20 / min 1.5 × Water30 / min	Tier 7 - Aeronautical Engineering
Packaged Alumina Solution	2 × Alumina Solution120 / min 2 × Empty Canister120 / min	Packager 1 sec	2 × Packaged Alumina Solution120 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement
Electrode Aluminum Scrap Alternate	12 × Alumina Solution180 / min 4 × Petroleum Coke60 / min	Refinery 4 sec	20 × Aluminum Scrap300 / min 7 × Water105 / min	Tier 7 - Bauxite Refinement

The Silica produced as a byproduct does not suffice for Aluminum Ingot production (using the standard recipe), more of it has to be produced from Raw Quartz. It can be omitted with the Pure Aluminum Ingot alternate recipe, which however reduces ingot yield by 25%.
- Routing 1/3 of the Scrap into Aluminum Ingot Foundries and the rest into Pure Aluminum Ingot Smelters consumes exactly all of the Silica byproduct, and reduces ingot yield by 12.5%.
- Using the Sloppy Alumina alternate recipe produces no byproduct Silica. This plus Pure Aluminum Ingot reduces ingot yield by 10%, but greatly increases energy efficiency.

The in-game refinement process resembles the real-life refining processes, in which bauxite is refined to pure alumina by the Bayer process and then to aluminum metal by the Hall-Héroult process.
- The Electrode-Aluminum Scrap alternate recipe represents a refinement in the Hall-Héroult process, using "prebaked" carbon anodes rather than cheaper but less efficient "self-baking" ones made from pitch.
Alumina is another name for aluminum oxide, Al₂O₃.
In real life, Alumina Solution is used both as a refining intermediate and as a polishing abrasive.
Alumina Solution is technically a suspension or slurry rather than a true solution, as aluminum oxide is insoluble in water.