PURAL and CATAPAL are the respective tradenames for the high

purity boehmite aluminas manufactured in Brunsbüttel, Germany

and Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA.

PURAL and CATAPAL are available as white, free flowing powders whose

unique combination of purity and controllable physical properties make

them excellent starting materials for many products. This family of aluminas

(alumina monohydrates, AlOOH, and bayerite, Al(OH)3) has been used as

supports or binders for catalysts in refinery and chemical processes.

Recent developments in many other applications have indicated these

aluminas have applications in areas far beyond catalysis.

Sasol pioneered processes to convert aluminum metal to synthetic boehmite

aluminas of high purity. Unlike other alumina manufacturing processes that

start with bauxite derivatives, our processes yield aluminas with

significantly lower levels of common impurities such as iron, sodium and

silica (as shown in table 1).

Additionally, our 30 years of alumina manufacturing experience allows us to

control and adjust physical properties such as surface area and porosity

(figure 1), particle size (figure 2) and peptization behavior (figure 4) so that

our customers are not limited in their thinking for possible uses for the aluminas.