New green anode plant at emal start-up & operation in the first two years

Abstract

EMAL — Emirates Aluminium PJSC, a strategic joint venture between aluminium producer Dubai Aluminium Company Limited, Dubai, UAE and Mubadala Development Company PJSC, Abu Dhabi, UAE, awarded the contract for the supply of a green anode plant and butt crushing facility for the 750,000 tpy EMAL — Emirates Aluminium Smelter project located in the Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone at Al Taweelah, halfway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, to Outotec GmbH, of Cologne, Germany, in July 2007. Outotec’s scope of delivery covered the engineering, supply and installation on EPC basis of the new green anode plant with two anode production lines, each rated at 50 t/h capacity, along with a crushing plant for recycled carbon materials. It is the first time, that a 100 tph capacity green anode plant was built in one step, utilising continuous mixing and vibro-compacting technologies. Innovative technologies, such as RTO (regenerative thermal oxidisation) for pitch fume treatment, vertical mill for fines production and green reject paste cooling and recycling have been employed. This paper describes the EMAL Green Anode Plant, its preoperational testing, start-up, early operation and the production results in the first year.