Pechiney Aviatube Limited
In January 2004 Lührfilter Ltd commissioned a fabric filter plant for the collection of dust and fume arising from a Gautschi Melting Furnace, Gautschi Holding Furnace and two Duplex Furnaces producing aluminium alloys for Pechiney Aviatube Limited at their Workington Works. The plant was installed as part of the IPPC Operating Licence of Pechiney Aviatube Limited.
The plant was designed to provide flexibility of operation of the Pechiney melting equipment. The production pattern was such that all three furnaces could operate simultaneously or only the Gautshi Melter and Holder or the Duplex alone. To this end the filtration equipment was configured with two filters in parallel, each with its own fan discharging to atmosphere via a common free standing exhaust stack each filter and fan being sized to handle the extraction from the Gautschi Melting Furnace and its holder. When on full production, with all furnaces in operation, both filters and fans are in operation. If it is required to operate either the Gautschi Melter/Holder or the Duplex Furnace separately, then only one filter and fan needs to be in operation.
The combined off gas temperature from the furnaces can be as high as 275ºC. The economics of the project deemed that the gases should be cooled by the addition of a small quantity of dilution air rather than by the use of a heat exchanger. It was decided that a normal filter operating temperature of 180ºC should be the design figure, this giving safety in allowing temperature surges of upto 200ºC in the event of higher than normal temperatures being realised at the furnaces.
The production regime of Pechiney Aviatube Limited operates continuously 24 hours day 7 days per week with shutdowns occurring at major holiday periods. It was therefore critical that the installed equipment could operate efficiently and without problems under such conditions. To date this has been achieved.
The particulate emission to atmosphere was guaranteed to 5mg/Nm3 the measured emission after commissioning was <0.5mg/Nm3
Pechiney Aviatube Limited is part of the Alcan group of companies. Alcan is the world’s second largest producer of primary aluminium, a technology leader in this sector and a predominant global producer of value-added engineered products and composites, supplying key market sectors such as aerospace, automotive and beverage cans. As a leading full-service provider in most packaging sectors, Alcan is ranked No.1 worldwide in food flexible, pharmaceutical and cosmetics packaging and No.2 in tobacco packaging. Alcan is also one of the world’s leading metal traders. Alcan is a dynamic, multilingual and multicultural organization with approximately 73,000 employees in 56 countries and regions around the globe.
