Cheap Method To Recover Aluminum Metal From Aluminum Chloride ( AlCl3 ) ?

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RLS0812

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Joined
Nov 17, 2018
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9
Location
Bucks County PA
I have about 10 lbs of the stuff ( dry weight ) leftover from recovering silver [*1], and I have no clue how to recover the metal without losing money in the process.
Is there an inexpensive way to recover aluminum metal from aluminum chloride powder ? There may be very small amounts of lead & tin chloride as well ( ~ 1 - 2% by weight ) .

[*1] I dissolve the aluminum in hydrochloric acid, and than use a separate process for recovering the silver
 
Simple answer, no. Aluminum is recovered from bauxite using an electrolytic cell using molten sodium hydroxide as the electrolyte. It is a very labor intensive and expensive process. It is done in vats as big as normal houses using tons of ore at a time. The first aluminum created was worth many times it's weight in gold because of the difficulties in reducing it to it's metallic form. Hydrate what you have, neutralize to PH 7 and send to the dump.
 
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