Proposed Next Steps for Thermical™ Process Development
Proof of Proposed System/Technology
During a system/technology proof stage, several areas of further investigation and data generation will be required. This is work that is required prior to embarking on semi-works scale development. Thus, using a “one-vessel” concept, further engineering data will be collected on the system’s thermal and dynamics behaviours. These data will be produced across a range of different temperatures, feeding rates, and hydrocarbon values. This work will also permit more detailed assessment of currently proposed options for the coupling of the charge forming process and the metal production stage.
Semi-Works Scale
In order to review and completely develop different segments of the proposed reactor for process commercialization, a 15,000 tonne/year semi-works scale plant is proposed.
Prior to this stage of development all process parameters will have been well defined in the “proof of proposed system/technology” phase so that all of the required engineering data for design will be readily available.
The purpose of the semi-works scale plant will be to carry out all necessary R&D and engineering development to achieve the following specific goals, i.e.:
i. Develop and complete engineering designs and detailed operational procedures;
ii. achieve nominal capacity;
iii. complete all preparations for the final engineering design of the full scale commercial plant;
iv. produce metal with high efficiency and higher plant availability; and,
v. profitably enter the aluminium market with initial small-scale quantities.
A pyrometallurgical plant with 15,000tonnes/year nominal capacity does not have a great requirement for heavy and/or specialised equipment, and may be effectively coupled with a suitable existing facility. Therefore it should not have difficult location issues. It is expected that the proposed plant will require about 30 MVA power and, at the then current stage of process maturity, be able to operate at 90% availability, 85% efficiency and 0.7 power factor.
In Calsmelt’s economic evaluations, the required capital has been calculated based on an averaged equipment cost ($1000/tonne production capacity) and averaged establishment R&D cost ($2,500/tonne capacity). Therefore the estimated capital requirement is of order US$ 50 million.
Results from a Break-Even Analysis are shown in figure 2, where it is indicated that, at the maturity stage (i.e., 15,000tonnes/year), this plant can reach a break-even point at an effective aluminium price equal to about half of the price produced by the electrolysis process (i.e., US$2000/tonne).
Current estimates indicate that any individual commercial plant should be of the order of 50,000tonnes/year capacity. The commercial plant will need 110-120 MVA power and heavy equipment. The estimated capital would be about US$50-60 million.
A Break-Even Analysis for a commercial plant is shown in Figure 3, where it can be seen that the break-even value of annual production is shown as a function of aluminium price. As an example, at a sale price of $US1,000/tonne, the break-even scale for a Thermical™ technology-based production plant would be about 15,000 tonnes per annum.
The reader will recognize that the scale and design of the Thermical™ carbothermic process lends itself to distributed smelters that may be positioned closer to downstream aluminium processing facilities. Therefore, the elimination of the cost of ingot transport represents another opportunity for reduced aluminium component production costs.
In addition, the process permits considerable recycle of aluminium scrap as feed for the process, permitting further process efficiency. In this regard, the aluminium carbothermic smelting process offers the potential for considerable logistics and scale efficiencies across the aluminium industry in an analogous manner to the mini-mill strategy deployed in the steel industry in recent decades.