Aluminium Bahrain's (Alba) $400 million project to build a coke calcining plant, seawater desalination plant, a new jetty and raw material handling facilities is all set to take physical shape at its marine terminal, following the completion of all the reclamation and piling work on the development.

The prestigious project will help the firm join the ranks of exporters of calcined coke from being a net importer of the raw material used in the production of carbon anodes. The expansion involves building a 450,000 tonnes per year (tpy) coke calcining plant and a 41,000 cu m per day seawater desalination plant, a jetty and raw material handling and storage facilities.

Almost half the company's production of calcined coke - around 200,000 tpy - will be exported around the world. The seawater desalination plant, which will utilise waste heat from the calcining process, will produce 41,000 cu m of potable water per day. This will be supplied to the Ministry of Electricity and Water, to help meet the country's growing demand for desalinated water.

The new jetty will be equipped to receive ships up to 80,000 tonnes.

The project also entails extensive upgrading of the company's jetty and raw material handing facilities, including the construction of alumina silos, alumina ship unloader and transportation system, calcined coke ship loader, and main utility supplies to the site.

Already two 60 m high alumina silos are taking shape on the otherwise flat horizon of the marine terminal which is now five times larger than its original size following the reclamation. The marine terminal is located 10 km from the main smelter. The 50,000 tonnes silos are being constructed by Ahmed Mansoor Al A'ali (AMA) and will be finished by May 2000. The coke calcining silos and blending silos (all concrete) will be built together with the storage building for green coke, the raw material used to produce calcined coke. In parallel to this, the foundations for the kilns, waste heat boiler and incinerators will be constructed. The present alumina silo will be converted to a green coke storage area by March 2001.

A string of contracts have just been completed on site. In November, Mannai Engineering Company finished work on the BD2.7 million ($7.16 million) onshore piling contract over the 141,000 sq m newly-reclaimed land. The site was reclaimed by AMA under a BD2.8 million ($7.42 million) deal which was completed on schedule last February.

Mannai Engineering's contract, awarded by Alba in March last year, included:

  • Mobilisation/demobilisation of several piling rigs;

  • Installation of 3,700 stone columns mainly for the areas where the green coke store and potable water tank will be constructed;

  • Installation of bored concrete piles for areas which will support the calcined coke storage silos, green coke blending silos, the main calciner kiln line, waste heat boilers, desalination plant and stacks.

    At the end of last year, Abdulla Ahmed Nass (AA Nass), in association with Christiani and Neilsen, was scheduled to complete the new jetty and access road. The contract, awarded by Alba early last year, included all offshore piling for the jetty, access road and conveyor intake structure.

    The ship unloading and loading facilities, together with intake conveying and pneumatic transport system, are being manufactured by Algroup Alusuisse and will be commissioned in August 2000.

    Alba, meanwhile, has awarded a number of other contracts last year including those for the new gas line, the 66 kV substation and cabling. Mannai has the deal for the gas line which is to be completed by September 2000. ABB Calor-emag has secured the contract for the substation which is scheduled for completion by the end of July 2000, while Furukawa Electric Company is responsible for the 66 kV cabling work which is to be finished by the end of July 2000.

    The culvert crossings contract to carry services to the site was awarded in September 1999 to AA Nass and was to be completed by the end of last year.

    The onsite material handling contract was awarded by Alba to Airmech on December 5, 1999 and will be completed in December 2000. This project will enable the Alba main plant to receive and handle calcined coke by truck unloading instead of the existing overhead ropeway system.

    Among the deals which were set to be awarded by the end of last year was for the post distillate water treatment plant and hyperchloride generator.

    Main contractor Mannesmann KTI set up an office in Bahrain during August last year and has let the main procurement contracts. Equipment is being procured from around the world and has started arriving on site. The firm was expected to award the mechanical erection subcontract by the end of last month

    The whole project, which is expected to contribute more than $50 million to Bahrain's economy each year, is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2001. The construction period is expected to be 27 months.

    Alba signed a $400 million loan agreement for the project in July 1998.

    Alba, which currently produces 500,000 tonnes of high-grade aluminium produced in the form of ingots, extrusion billets, rolling slabs and T-ingots, performed excellently throughout 1999, according to Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa, Minister of Oil and Industry and Alba's chairman.

    The firm's board has recently approved a spending of BD6 million on a number of upgrading projects around the plant and for equipment for the newly-completed Research and Development (R&D) Centre.

    The BD1.6 million R&D centre at Alba was opened in November. Work on the two-storey building was completed by Mohammed Jalal Contracting. The building, sprawling over an area of 4,000 sq m at the south end of the plant, also houses Alba's laboratory and metallurgy departments.