This week the Qatalum Aluminium project has achieved a significant milestone by filing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) with Qatar’s Supreme Council for Environment and Natural Reserves (SCE)
Qatar Petroleum and the Norwegian company Hydro Aluminium have been preparing for a major new aluminium project in Qatar since late 2004. It consists of a smelter, a casthouse and a carbon plant as well as a dedicated power plant. Qatar Petroleum and Hydro will each hold 50 percent of the new company. Once State approvals have been secured, construction will start in 2007 and the first production is planned for late 2009.
Truls Gautesen, Head of Qatalum, expects SCE to shortly convene an expert panel to review Qatalum’s EIA report. In this panel also Qatalum’s technical staff and consultants will be participating in multi-day review sessions with SCE experts, where all aspects of the proposed project will be closely scrutinized including an inspection of the proposed plant site in Mesaieed.
“We welcome and look forward to answering SCE questions to ensure that the Qatalum Project is in compliance with SCE standards and regulations,” said Gautesen. "Qatalum will have access to Hydro’s captive technology, and we have access to their expertise and innovative solutions that were installed in Hydro's recently commissioned project in Sunndal, Norway. Qatalum can also build on the experiences drawn from the start up and first years of operation, as well as, other Hydro technology development activities and projects where we have been involved."
In the last 20 years, Hydro and the entire aluminium industry have made significant inroads in controlling, capturing and recycling harmful emissions that earlier had harmful effects on vegetation, wildlife and employees. “It is like comparing a 1980 automobile with today’s modern car”, said Truls Gautesen. With improvements in technology, removal of gases from the process is an important factor in protecting operators and ensuring a clean working environment. The patented extraction system collects 99.5 percent of the gases from the process with optimal energy use. Qatalum has applied and purchased technologies that are Best Available Technology (BAT) in the world for many operational areas of the plant. Qatalum has used BAT in using sulphur dioxide scrubbers and dry off-gas scrubbers, energy efficiency with combined cycle turbines for the power plant, and conservation of sea water by using salt water cooling towers.
Truls Gautesen has more than 30 years of operational experience in the aluminium industry. In the senior management of Qatalum he will have experienced mangers with years of international experience in all key positions. The Qatalum project has already established a draft HSE policy on Health, Safety and the Environment.
“To ensure that we reach our ambitious targets for health, safety and the environment, Qatalum can adopt a Management System that is, developed by and, used daily by Hydro Aluminium’s network of primary aluminium plants in Europe and Australia,” Gautesen explains.
