Evaporator lines delivered to Utkal (Source: GEA)
GEA Group AG (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.gea.com) has been awarded a follow-up contract by Utkal Alumina to build a third line of multi-stage falling-film evaporators at Uktal’s alumina refinery in Orissa, India. GEA already delivered the first two evaporator lines with a capacity of 310 tons per hour each to this refinery. These evaporator lines had been commissioned in 2013. This evaporation unit removes water added to the process from residue washing, product washing and other various sources. The so-called alumina spent liquor is concentrated and then used again for the digestion of the bauxite rock. The evaporation plant is designed to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in continuous operation with sufficient cleaning frequency. With this third evaporator line, the total capacity of 1.5 million tons of alumina per year can be increased to 2 million tons per year.
GEA’s scope of supply includes process equipment such as pressure vessels, heat exchangers, pumps, tanks and separators, process and supply piping, as well as instrumentation and commissioning to ensure the best quality execution of this project. In this context, GEA engineers also examined the extent to which process steps can be combined and integrated energetically to achieve the lowest possible energy balance. GEA has extensive know-how and decades of experience in this application. GEA’s presence in India enables the company to provide local site services and equipment delivery.
“We are proud to have received a follow-up order from Utkal Alumina that reflects confidence in GEA’s technology and product quality. GEA has more than a hundred thirty reference plants in the alumina industry. The extensive know-how gained in building these plants gives us the experience to design new plants that are tailored to the customer’s needs and minimize operating costs,” says Suket Gohil, Country Managing Director, GEA India Cluster.
Utkal Alumina International Ltd., a 100 percent subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group company Hindalco, is engaged in alumina refining. The Utkal refinery, located in Rayagada District, Odisha, India is supplied by Baphlimali’s proprietary bauxite mines, which have sufficient reserves to meet the refinery’s needs for 25 years.