National engineering award for Alcoa

A scientific breakthrough in alumina refining has earned aluminium company Alcoa the Australian Government Engineering Innovation Award at the 2010 Australian Engineering Excellence Awards in Canberra.

The awards, run by Engineers Australia, acknowledge the professionalism and pursuit of excellence by engineers across the country. Finalists are known to have set global benchmarks for best practice in their fields and are leaders in the profession.

Alcoa’s global refining research and development team, the Technology Delivery Group (TDG), based in Western Australia, was recognised for innovative technology that uses naturally occurring microorganisms to consume oxalate - an impurity in the alumina refining process.

Oxalate removal is essential for high alumina quality and refinery productivity. The new process, known as ‘continuous biological oxalate destruction’, is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution to the oxalate challenge. It is currently in operation at Alcoa’s Kwinana Refinery in Western Australia.

Alcoa TDG Research Chemist Dr Amanda Tilbury believes it is the first time a continuous biological removal process has been implemented for this type of industrial application. She said it was more than 10 years in the making and builds on early work started by other alumina producers.

“The alternative oxalate destruction technique is very expensive and energy intensive, so this new process is saving Alcoa millions of dollars while at the same time significantly reducing our energy use,” Tilbury said.

Director of Research for Alcoa’s Global Refining System Dr Ian Harrison said: “This project is a great example of a dedicated and highly skilled team at TDG, working very closely with scientists from the University of Western Australia and CSIRO, to achieve a result which has exceeded our expectations and provides a platform for future installations in Alcoa refineries around the world.

“The research, engineering and construction of this process were completed in WA using world’s best practice biotechnologies, and I’m very proud of what our team has achieved.”

Alcoa is expected to roll out the technology to its other Western Australian refineries at Pinjarra and Wagerup. Long term, the process has the potential to consume all of the nearly 200 metric tonnes of oxalate removed each day by Alcoa’s nine refineries around the world, while also reducing energy usage.