One of the largest alumina refineries in Australia, Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) will upgrade their alumina refining process with the installation of Siemens’ medium voltage variable speed drives (VSDs). Forming a critical part of QAL’s strategic five-year environmental strategy (5-YES) aimed at reducing environmental risks and emissions through capital improvements, the order includes a total of five variable speed drives from Siemens.
Three GH180 Perfect Harmony VSDs will replace existing drives, helping reduce energy usage and emissions. In addition, another two VSDs will be for installed in the boiler house ash pumps.
Speaking on the announcement, Paul Bulloch, Head of the Large Drives Applications business at Siemens Australia and New Zealand commended QAL saying, “QAL has a rich history in Gladstone spanning over 54 years. Their operations contribute to the economy on a local, national and global scale. It’s great to see them investing in cutting-edge technology that has a proven track record of helping reduce OPEX costs globally from China and Singapore to Germany and Australia through higher productivity, faster project execution thanks to 30% shorter commissioning times and maximised efficiency.
"We’re proud to work closely with QAL, assisting them in achieving their targets of reduced energy consumption and emissions."
This upgrading project aligns with QAL’s 5-YES program committing to a $400m budget for 60 Capital improvement projects and culture change initiatives. The five-year strategy aims to reduce environmental risks and emissions potential in the focus areas of dust, water, land, air and culture.The GH180 Perfect Harmony VSD has an installed base of over 780 units in Australia and almost 20,000 units globally exceeding 25GW of installed power capacity. Enhanced reliability is now also possible with remote diagnostics from SiDrive IQ.
