ABB Control System for Alunorte's Alumina Refinery Expansion

ABB has activated a new automation system at the expanaion of Alunorte's alumina refinery in Brazil. Alunorte tapped ABB to extend the automation program it previously installed for three production lines at ehe alumina refinery, and since April, after five months of commissioning and 12 days of ramp-up, Alunorte has been operating at nominal load. Alunorte, or Alumina do Norte do Brasil S.A., in Barcarena, Pará, is a CVRD subsidiary.

The operation's maintenance manager Roberto Trindade explains,"We have had a framework agreement with ABB since the first expansion. We do not buy a package; with ABB's know-how and our operational technology we build the project solutions together".

With two new process lines, Alunorte aimed to become the world's largest alumina refinery, increasing its capacity from 2.5 million to 4.2 million metric tons/year. And, it succeeded.

According to ABB, its expansion plan involved installing more fieldbuses than had been applied in any previous installation, and all the device interfaces are integrated with ABB's IndustrialIT extended automation system 800xA. ABB, Alunorte, and third-party suppliers cooperated to coordinate all the libraries necessary to maintain communication among 35 different device types, and to test these during the project phase, enhancing the solutions library to a significant degree.

The new automation system has a total of 18,000 I/O points using ABB's S800 I/O system, Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus interfaces, and 13 redundant AC800M controllers. All motor control center interfaces with the system are via Profibus communication, and all instrumentation is done via Foundation Fieldbus high-speed Ethernet. As integrated with the operation's intelligent devices, the process-control network centralizes diagnostic information. ABB predicts the result will be a range of asset-optimization possibilities for subsequent installations at Alunorte.