ALUMINIUM Bahrain's (Alba) $400 million project to build a coke calcining plant, seawater desalination plant and jetty facility upgrade at its marine terminal is now nearing completion and set to be fully operational this summer. The project is the first of its kind in the Middle East.

The coke calcining plant will not only meet all Alba's requirements for calcined petroleum coke - around 250,000 tonnes per year (tpy) - but will also produce a further 200,000 tpy for export around the world.

Therefore, by undertaking this project, Alba not only expects to reduce its costs and gain greater control on the quality of its petroleum coke but it has also made the project a potential revenue earner.

Besides the 450,000 tpy coke calcining plant, the project involves the construction of a seawater desalination plant which will utilise waste heat from the coke calciner to produce 41,000 cu m per day of potable water for the country's water network.

The project also entails an extensive upgrade of Alba's jetty and raw material handling facilities, including the construction of alumina silos, an alumina ship unloader and transport system, calcined coke ship loader, new additional jetty and main utility supplies to the site. The jetty facility will enable ships of 60,000 tonnes to unload alumina.

Phase 1 of the project was completed in February 1999. This involved the reclamation of 141,000 sq m of land, increasing by fivefold the size of the existing marine terminal.

Following this, attention turned to installing the 1,800 piles and 3,700 stone columns necessary to provide a firm foundation for the plant. The final element of this contract - the pile capping work for the calcined coke silos, rotary kilns, incinerators and blending silos - was finished in November 1999.

In parallel with this, the contract for the new jetty with its access road was let. This work, requiring 180 offshore steel pipes, was completed in February 2000.

Last year has seen tremendous progress on the site with the foundations completed for the calcined coke silos, waste heat boilers, dust filtration units, coke cooler area, main stacks and the retaining walls for the green coke storage area. The kiln, coke cooler and incinerator sections have all been lifted onto the support piers and welded together. Refractory work is currently in progress on both kilns and incinerators.

The two 50,000-tonne alumina silos were completed on schedule on May 31, last year. The conveyors and pneumatic ductwork for the alumina transport system have been commissioned and this system is now operational.

The civil work on the six 1,200-tonne blending silos is complete and the installation of the mechanical equipment is well advanced.

The civil work on the four 10,000-tonne calcined coke silos is also complete. The structural steel for the bucket elevators was completed in September.

The 66 kV substations and cabling have been commissioned and the main 11.5 kV substation energised.

The 20,000 cu m potable water storage tank is complete and all four desalination modules have been placed on their foundations. The waste heat boilers steelwork is erected and the installation of the tubing is well advanced.

Work on the main gas line and on the reducing station is practically complete and commissioning will start in February.

A new 650 tonne/hr kangaroo crane for offloading the green coke was installed over December 8 and 9 with a target completion date set for this month (January 19).