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Projects Undertaken
A number of projects have been undertaken by the team at alphaconcepts; to view a particular section of this page, please
select the desired image or project discipline below:
Evaporator Optimisation:
A
major Australian Chemical Producer utilised the services of Alpha Concepts
to optimise the operation of an evaporator / chemical crystalliser to
produce product of increased crystal content and chemical content
utilising different control mechanisms, alternate operating practices,
techniques of semi-batch operation, crystal seeding and improved capacity.
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Improved Reverse Osmosis Plant Performance:
A
Chemical Manufacturer on the Western Seaboard enlisted the services of
Alpha Concepts to review the operation of a multi-stage Reverse Osmosis
Plant, develop a detailed operating manual, troubleshooting guide and set
of operational procedures. |
Improvement Projects:
This
contract involved the review of a section of plant and the proposal of over
30 improvement projects. Improvement projects were across areas of
operating practice improvements, capital improvements and efficiency of
operation improvements.
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Decommission
of TICOR Chemical Company:
This project involved the decommissioning and decontamination of the TICOR
Chemical Company’s Sodium Cyanide Plant in Gladstone, Queensland. All
process vessels and pipework both internally and externally were shutdown,
removed of cyanide contamination and inspected. This was of significant
importance in respect to sale of the site. The project involved
development of project plan and implementation, including control of
Production and Technical personal in a redundancy environment. |
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Reverse
Osmosis Project:
A
project was developed from the conception phase through research and
development, plant design, plant fabrication and plant commissioning.
Reverse Osmosis Technology was implemented to produce two valuable product
streams from a cyanide waste stream. The feed stream was the vapour
condensate from the cyanide evaporation process. The product streams
developed were a concentrated cyanide stream returned to the production
facility and a demineralised water stream used for cooling water make-up.
The project had both economic and environmental advantages. |
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Refrigeration
Plant Projects:
This
project involved training operators on the ammonia based refrigeration
plant. This involved not only specific equipment and operational role
training; it also involved technical training with respect to the science
and engineering behind the refrigeration cycle. The refrigeration plant
was used to remove water from a hydrogen gas stream. |
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Batch
Evaporation Automation:
In
this project the two batch evaporators were automated to enable the
production of more consistent crystals of more consistent product
concentration. The project involved measuring the evaporator charge volume
and water vapour draw off. By knowing the feed concentration enable logic
control to produce consistent product concentration. This project
significantly improved the plants slurry output and reduced operational
labour. |
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Reverse
Osmosis Membrane Cleaning System:
This
project involved the design and installation of an acidic cleaning system
to remove foulant from the membranes of the Reverse Osmosis process. This
project had a number of complexities with respect to safely using acidic
material to clean cyanide systems and the associated risk of hydrogen
cyanide production. |
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Natural
Gas Feedstock:
At
TICOR Chemicals, the reactors were converted from a butane hydrocarbon
feedstock to a natural gas feedstock. As a result reactor-operating
parameters were changed and Operation’s personnel were trained. A new
feed system was designed with pressure drop calculations, line sizing,
pressure reduction, and emergency shutdown safety systems. New pressure
temperature compensation was implemented as part of the reactor feed gas
control. Due to the reactors utilising ammonia and natural gas a system
was developed to stop ammonium carbonate/ carbamate from forming by super
heating the ammonia and natural gas feed gases. |
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Reactor
Back Pressure Control:
The
Hydrogen Cyanide reactor system suffered from downstream pressure
fluctuations and associated influences on the fluidised bed.
A back-pressure control system was designed and implemented to
stabilise reactor operating pressure. This system also allowed further
manipulation of reactor operating conditions, thereby increasing reactor
performance and output. |
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Reactor
Coke Dropout Automation:
This
project involved the automation of a high temperature (350 oC) coke
particle dropout system from a high temperature (1550 oC) fluidised bed
reactor. A previously manual system was automated to yield more consistent
operation and a more constant effect on the fluidised bed reactor. |
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Grey
Water System:
This
project involved analysing plant waste streams in a time of water crisis
and developing a system whereby waste water was used as a feed water
stream for washing and back flushing process pressure filters. This
project reduced effluent production and saved water resource. |
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Absorption
Transfer Project:
The
absorption transfer project involved computer modelling and optimising of
the point of transfer of the absorbed material for further processing.
Once new system operating characteristics were determined then operator
training and assessment was completed. |
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Pond
Ammonia Stripping Project:
In
this project, a simple water spray was utilised for ammonia removal from
wastewater. A simple low cost system was developed that increased the
water contact with air and thereby increased ammonia removal. The spray
was also successful in drastically reducing the effects of over-spray on
the nearby vegetation. |
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DCS
Improvement Projects:
A
number of operational control projects have been completed on the TICOR
site involving modification to RS3-DCS code:
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Reactor
MW control modification |
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Centrifuge
feed control |
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Automatic
control of reactor electrodes |
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Implementation
of gas cooler blow-back system |
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Automatic
draining of water knock out vessels |
| Automation
of coke screw conveyors |
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HCN
Reactor Improvement Projects:
A
number of projects have been completed that involved increasing reactor
yield, reactor operational life and reactor output. |
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Bulk
Loading System Training:
This
project involved development of operator training packages with respect to
bulk cyanide conveying and loading system. |
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