Method for production of aluminum oxide

Abstract

High purity aluminum oxide is produced by continuously reacting high purity metallic aluminum, either solid or liquid, with high purity oxygen, present in stoichiometrically excessive amount, within a vertically oriented cylindrical vessel closed at the top and open at the bottom and having cooled side walls on which there forms a layer of solid aluminum oxide. Newly formed aluminum oxide deposits as a liquid film on the inside surface of this layer and flows downwardly thereover by gravity to the open bottom of the container and thence falls to a collecting vessel below, solidifying either during this fall or after impingement on a moving metallic surface. An annular array of burners, e.g. oxy-hydrogen burners, limits downward growth of the layer below the vessel, prevents closing off by growth of that layer of the space within the vessel, and fosters detachment of the downwardly flowing film in the form of drops to fall to the collection vessel.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.