| Project Detail |
Prefeasibility study of options for partial steam electrification at Worsley Alumina refinery using electric boilers (E-Boiler) and mechanical vapour recompression (MVR). Need The alumina refining industry is Australia’s largest user of industrial process heat. Collectively, the industry was responsible for ~15 Mt CO2-e of scope 1 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2021, which represents up to 3% of Australia’s total GHG emissions in that year. The Worsley Alumina refinery commenced operations in 1984 and has undergone multiple upgrades to improve its efficiency, including the partial transition from coal to gas. Alumina refining has been identified as a hard-to-abate sector due to a number of key factors such as: capital costs and complexity associated with retrofitting, a lack of mature technologies, and the energy intensive nature of the Bayer circuit. The Bayer circuit, which requires heat in the form of steam is the primary source of emissions in alumina refining. The prefeasibility study is focused on investigating technologies to potentially transition away from fossil fuel fired steam to electrically generated steam. The options being studied include electric boilers, which generate steam directly using an electrode, and mechanical vapour recompression, which involves capturing low-pressure waste vapour from the refining process for recompression to create pressurised steam for reuse. These technologies have the potential to improve efficiency and reduce GHG emissions, through the use of renewable electricity. |
