Ma’aden Aluminium Company, a Joint Venture between Saudi Arabian Mining Company and Alcoa, has decided to build an aluminium smelter as part of Phase 1 of an industrial complex located at Ras Az Zawr on the East Coast of Saudi Arabia.
This state-of-the-art greenfield smelter will produce 740,000 tpy of aluminium with two reduction lines of 360 pots each, based on AP37 technology.
In the frame of this project, Fives Solios was awarded with the following contracts:
The Liquid Pitch Marine Terminal at the port, designed to unload liquid pitch from ships at a rate of 300 tph and to store it in 2 x 6,000 t tanks. This facility will include specific features such as liquid pitch magnetic coupling pumps to avoid pitch spillage for a better working environment, a Regenerative Catalytic Oxidizer (RCO) to treat the emitted pitch vapours and 2 HTM electrical heaters.
Two 40 tph Green Anode Plants including coke and pitch unloading facilities, the carbon butts recycling unit, and a twin anodes cooling tunnel. The Green Anode Plants will feature the innovative and proven solutions already in operation in the region such as Rhodax® for dry material preparation, IMC® (Intensive Mixing Cascade) technology for paste mixing and cooling, Xelios, the high performance vibrocompacting unit fitted with vacuum and top back pressure, and Amelios, a real time “data-mining” solution for process analysis and follow-up.
These high performance technologies will bring significant investment and operating cost savings, together with benefits in terms of anode quality and pot performance, compared to conventional plants.
A 62 tph Bath Processing Plant equipped with a Rotary Breaker. This facility will include raw bath feeding, bath grinding and classifying, ground bath storage and utilities.
Four Gas Treatment Centers (GTCs) consisting of 18 TGT-RI dry-scrubber modules, fitted with the Yprios dual ducting system to reduce emissions during pots opening for operation and maintenance. The GTCs also include the Forced Cooling Networks to cool down pot shells, and a fresh and fluorinated alumina handling system.
The Fives Solios dry-scrubbing technology can maximise the pots amperage and productivity whilst reducing global emissions of the smelter.
Fifteen Furnaces for the Casthouse with associated launder systems:
- 5 x 135 t Tilting Holding Furnaces for slab Vertical Direct Casting,
- 5 x 100 t Tilting Holding Furnaces for ingot casting,
- 3 x 85 t Tilting Holding Furnaces for billet casting,
- 1 x 36 t Static Melting Furnace capable of receiving a 32 t coil, and 1 x 90 t Tilting
Melting furnace fitted with a bottom mounted EMS, both for the scraps remelting
facility,
- 5 Siphoning systems.
When completed, Ma’aden casthouse will include the largest capacity of modern furnaces worldwide.
Following the successful completion of Alba 5 in Bahrain, Sohar Aluminium in Oman, Emal in the United Arab Emirates and Qatalum in Qatar, the award of major contracts by Ma’aden Aluminium Company confirms the leading position of Fives Solios in the field of primary aluminium production in the Gulf area.