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Illustrative planning model · clocks accelerated · no live plant connectionStandalone / offline · SmelterSim API v1.0
SmelterWorks 3D aluminium process simulator
Offline-capable 3D aluminium smelter process simulator with editable assumptions, production and energy KPIs, outage scenarios, and JSON/CSV exports.
What it does
Models a map-inspired primary-aluminium plant from alumina and coke receiving through storage, hydropower and transmission, rectifiers, 298 reduction pots, carbon anodes, casting, and road, rail, and ship movements. The browser simulation animates material flows and updates operating stocks, production, energy, equipment status, and mass-balance indicators as simulated time advances.
Who it is for and when to use it
Use it for learning, demonstrations, or early scenario exploration when you want to see how assumed production, feed, power, and equipment settings affect a simplified smelter model. It is not a live operations dashboard, engineering design tool, or source of plant operating instructions.
How to use it
Choose a process area in the left navigation, or use the camera presets, cutaway, labels, and orbit controls to inspect the 3D layout.
Use Play/Pause, +1 h, and the speed menu to advance the simulation clock. The clock is simulated time, not a connection to a real plant.
Open Parameters to edit production targets, potline load, alumina and power assumptions, logistics, carbon, casting, and dispatch settings. Apply changes to the current run; use Reset run to rebuild initial inventories and schedules with the current parameters.
Open Operations to review KPI history and test predefined outages such as losing a rectifier or transmission line, stopping a conveyor, or stopping casting.
Save a full JSON snapshot to keep a run, and import that file later to restore it. Export hourly history as CSV when you need a spreadsheet view.
Inputs
Editable operating assumptions with stated units, permitted ranges, and provenance, including annual metal target, potline load, alumina ratio, reported feed, smelting power, generator and line capacity, rectifier capacity, and AC-to-DC efficiency.
Supply and process settings for vessel frequency and cargo, unloading and transfer rates, pot tapping, anode throughput and use, casting cycle and yield, and truck and rail dispatch.
Equipment availability through built-in scenarios or the structured agent interface. Parameter edits retain existing inventories; timed batches already in progress keep their original completion times.
Outputs
Live primary-metal rate and target, AC power and implied energy intensity, calculated alumina feed versus the reported figure, active pots, metal and cast production, and alumina autonomy.
Operations results including target attainment, AC/DC energy, exported metal, ready anodes, current constraint, hourly production and stock histories, and alumina/aluminium balance residuals.
A net anode-CO₂ proxy and a timestamped activity journal. The proxy is not total plant or lifecycle emissions.
A JSON snapshot of the full serializable run and a CSV of up to the latest 720 hourly history samples. Cumulative totals are retained in JSON, not in the hourly CSV.
Example use case
At the default 230,000 t/year target and 1.92 t/t alumina ratio, the model calculates about 50.4 t/h of alumina feed. It displays the separate 120 t/h reported-consumption assumption for comparison rather than forcing those values to agree. The default 670 MW input implies about 25.5 MWh per tonne at the target rate. Change the assumptions or apply an outage to explore how the illustrative model responds.
Model basis and limitations
The plant arrangement is map-inspired and schematic; distances, building positions, and other geometry are not surveyed measurements. The model tab distinguishes public reference material from editable scenario values.
This is an illustrative, target-constrained process model, not live telemetry or a validated digital twin. Many capacities and operating values are user figures or assumptions; confirm measurement periods and boundaries before treating a result as a forecast.
Energy intensity uses rectifier-input AC energy and excludes transmission losses and auxiliary loads. The anode-CO₂ proxy is not a total-emissions estimate. Other metal production and alloy-addition recipes are not simulated.
The simulation runs in the browser and does not upload model state. When online, the page’s Google Analytics tag may send page-view data to Google. Runs are not automatically saved; download JSON before leaving if you need to resume.
WebGL is required for the 3D scene. If unavailable, the page disables the 3D camera controls but keeps the process model, controls, KPIs, exports, and agent interface available.
Agent and developer interface
The Model & API dialog documents window.SmelterSim, its action manifest, the readable #sim-state snapshot, and structured commands for reading KPIs, changing parameters or equipment, advancing time, applying scenarios, resetting, and importing or exporting data. Calls return structured success or validation-error results.
Frequently asked questions
Is this connected to a real smelter?
No. It is a standalone simulation with a schematic layout and editable assumptions. It has no live plant connection.
Does it save a run automatically?
No browser storage or automatic save is used. Download a JSON snapshot and import it later to resume a saved state. JSON imports are limited to 6 MB.
What does the CSV contain?
The CSV contains unit-labelled hourly history for up to 720 samples. The JSON snapshot includes the full serializable state and cumulative totals.