Fuzzy Control Applied to Aluminum Smelting

Aluminum is a modern and new metal, since it has been produced for industry no earlier than 1886, when Hall and Héroult concurrently found out a method to produce free Aluminum through electrolysis (Beck, 2008). In 1900, the Aluminum production worldwide had reached a thousand tons. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 21st century, global production reached 32 million tons encompassed by 24 million of primary Aluminum and 8 million of recycled material. This fact puts Aluminum at the second place in the list of the most used metals on earth. The world without Aluminum became inacceptable: the businessmen, the tourists, the delivery offices fly over the world in airplanes made of Aluminum, as well as many enterprises and industries are strongly dependent of this metal. Figure 1 shows in a widely perspective where Aluminum is most used.