Light Metals 2009 Edited by
TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2009
Increased availability and optimization of calciner performance due to automation
Michael Missalla, Dr. Jan Jarzembowski, Roger Bligh, Dr. Hans Werner Schmidt
Outotec GmbH, Oberursel / Germany
Keywords: Alumina Calciner, CFB calciner, Operation, Automation
Abstract
In the last 30 years, Outotec has installed more than 50 calciners
worldwide. Over the years the operation was improved
significantly and thus also availability was raised. Real costs for
instrumentation and control systems have also reduced over this
period, thus encouraging the installation of more instrumentation,
data analysis and better process monitoring.
More recently, the trend has been towards full automation of
activities like capacity load changes while maintaining other
performance and product quality related parameters within
specification. Other examples of improved automation are the use
of advanced control loops with multiple input, while preheating
and shut down of the calcination plant can be achieved with just
the push of a button.
The benefits of improved automation include improved
availability through avoidance of operator error, reduction in
manpower for process control related tasks and reduced
requirement for field adjustment in potentially hazardous areas.
The implementation of multivariable control strategies in recently
commissioned plants and comprehensively engineered control
concepts are described. Furnace temperature feed forward control,
automated pre-heating, start-up, gas and solids purge, equipment
protection monitoring, and automated protective measures for
operational stability and plant trip prevention are presented.
Introduction
In line with the trend towards larger alumina refinery size,
Outotec’s customers have also requested calciners with steadily
larger unit capacities[1],[2]. For example, Outotec has recently
commissioned two large CFB calciners with a design capacity of
3300 tonnes per day (tpd) at the alumina refinery in Alunorte,
Brazil which design was based on the existing plants D and E.
With the start up of the calciners D and E in 2006, the team of
Alunorte and Outotec set a new benchmark in terms of short
duration until the plant could operate with full production [3]. The
start up of the new calciners F and G in 2008 made this former
record a routine. With these calciners Alunorte now operates in
total seven alumina calciners based on Outotec’s Circulating
fluidized Bed (CFB) technology [4]. The overall production
capacity of 6.3 million tons per year (tpy) makes Alunorte the
world’s single biggest alumina refinery.
Importantly for the customer, calciners F and G have proven to be
easier to operate and control than their predecessors despite the
similar design and layout. This improvement in operability is
mainly due to an increased level of automated protective measures
which lead to fewer operator mistakes and therefore higher
availability and improved safety[5].
Further examples are the two recently commissioned 3500 tpd
calciners at the Rio Tinto/Alcan refinery in Gove, where a number
of advances in automation were implemented, especially in the
area of preheat burner and fuel control. As a result, these calciners
have proved to be significantly easier to operate than their
predecessor, despite their larger capacity.
The target and goals for automation can be formulated as:
 Reduced operational risk
 Reduced operator pre-occupation with standard tasks
 Improved operational stability and product quality
 Reduced operating cost
Risk to personnel, equipment and plant productivity resulting
from incorrect/inappropriate operation of the plant can be reduced
regardless of the individual operator skills by the implementation
of pre-defined and approved procedures. Automation of operating
and control functions plays an important part in achieving this
target by taking predetermined actions directly, and providing
diagnostic information to the operator. The introduction of
automated procedures to prevent plant trips leads to an increased
availability and throughput of the calciner [6].
Automation also helps operators to focus on overall site
performance by reducing their pre-occupation with standard tasks
like following a pre-heating curve according to a set profile or
load change the load of a calciner.
Moreover, the improved operational stability resulting from
advanced automation techniques leads to a more stable product
quality, even under conditions where the process is being
disturbed by external upset conditions.
Automation can be further divided into pre-operational,
operational and post-operational activities. Pre-operational
activities consist of preheating, purging and preparation activities.
While post-operational activities deal with all the stop activities to
bring the equipment into a defined status as required by the user.
Operational activities are for example start up and production.
In the operational part protective measures for operational
stability and plant trip preventions are implemented. For example,
trip prevention measures prevent operators from entering data
which would lead to a major upset or trip of the calciner. Besides
trip conditions are monitored and pro-active measures are taken
from the control system, e.g. the limitation of fuel with respect to
a safe fuel/air ratio [7].
Process Description
Figure 1: Typical flowsheet of a Circulating Fluid Bed (CFB)
calciner.
In the flowsheet (Figure1) the central piece of equipment is the
furnace group in the form of a CFB which is the core process for
the calcination. Upstream the furnace group, heat is recovered by
the feed hydrate from the off-gases in the two preheating stages.
Downstream of the calcination, the alumina solids are cooled
down in the cooling stages before being discharged to the alumina
storage.
Preheating Stage I
From the hydrate feed bin, the hydrate is discharged by a screw
feeder. The screw feeder delivers the material into the venturi
preheater of the first preheating stage. There the solids are mixed
with the waste gas, which leaves the cyclone of the second
preheating stage. The heat contained in the waste gas evaporates
the entire surface moisture of the hydrate.
The preheated hydrate entrained with the waste gas is conveyed
into the two-stage electrostatic precipitator (ESP). In a first
mechanical stage of the ESP parts of the entrained solids are
precipitated. The rest of the solids enters the second stage of the
ESP together with the waste gas. The waste gas is finally cleaned
by means of electrostatic precipitation before it leaves the process
to the atmosphere.
The solids precipitated in the second stage by electrostatic
precipitation are conveyed to the bottom of the mechanical stage
by means of screw conveyors. The solids are then fed into an air
slide.
Preheating Stage II
The air slide discharges the hydrate into the sending pot of the
pneumatic elevator where the hydrate is conveyed by air to the
airlift cyclone. The main portion of the discharged solids is
delivered via a discharge seal to the lower part of the venturi
preheater of the second preheating stage.
The conveying air cleaned in the airlift cyclone is delivered via
ducts to the secondary air cyclone and serves finally as
combustion air. The hydrate entering the venturi preheater of the
second preheating stage is mixed with the hot waste gas leaving
the recycling cyclone and is dehydrated by the heat contained in
the hot gas
In the cyclone, which is arranged downstream of the venturi
preheater, the flow of gas and solids will be separated. From the
cyclone, the pre-calcined alumina is delivered into the fluid bed
furnace through the material feeding line. The waste gas leaving
the cyclone of the second preheating stage is conveyed to the
venturi preheater or the first preheating stage where it assumes the
above mentioned function.
Calcining Stage
The final calcination of the preheated and partly dehydrated
hydrate takes place in the fluid bed furnace. The required heat for
calcination is generated by direct combustion of fuel in the fluid
bed. For that purpose, dedicated retractable oil lances for heavy
fuel oil will be installed. Part of the air quantity required for
combustion is introduced through the nozzle grate as primary air,
and the remaining air is added above the grate as secondary air.
Due to the intensive mixing and heat exchange that takes place in
the fluidised bed, the furnace temperature adjusts itself as a mixed
temperature between the combustion temperature and the solids
temperature, and is kept steady at a pre-set level. In the lower
furnace zone, between the grate and the secondary air inlet, a fluid
bed of high solids concentration is adjusted. It favors the
combustion of the fuel and increases the mean retention time in
the calcining furnace. In the upper furnace zone the internal
recirculation of the solids causes a continuous reduction of solids
concentration until a relatively low concentration is reached. With
this solids concentration, the hot gases enter the recycling cyclone
where they are separated from the solids. The hot alumina, which
is separated in the recycling cyclone passes through the seal pot
and re-enters the fluid bed furnace.
The recirculation of the solids leads to uniform and practically
identical product - and gas temperatures in the entire calcination
stage, which consists of the fluid bed furnace, recycling cyclone
and seal pot. The fluidisation of the solids in the seal pot, which is
required for re-circulation is done by means of the seal-pot
blower. A partial product stream is taken from the circulation
system and discharged to the cooling stage by the water-cooled
discharge lance.
The alumina, which is discharged from the calcining stage is
cooled in two direct cooling stages each of which consists of a
liftduct and a secondary air cyclone. The third cooling stage is
designed as a fluid bed cooler and mainly relies on indirect heat
transfer.
Cooling Stage I
The alumina coming from the calcining stage is first mixed with
pre-heated air in the liftduct 1 and conveyed into the secondary air
cyclone 1. At the same time the air is heated from the temperature
of the second cooling stage to the temperature of the first cooling
stage. This air is routed from the outlet of the secondary air
cyclone 1 to the CFB system as secondary air and used for
combustion.
Cooling Stage II
The alumina discharged from the bottom of the secondary air
cyclone 1 is fed into the liftduct 2 via a pressure seal. In this
liftduct the alumina is mixed and further cooled with secondary
air coming from the fluid bed cooler and additional air coming
directly from blowers. It is then conveyed into the secondary air
cyclone 2 from where it is discharged into the fluid bed cooler. At
the same time the secondary and additional air are pre-heated to
the temperature of the second cooling stage and then routed to the
bottom of the liftduct 1.
Cooling Stage III
In order to achieve a low specific heat consumption during the
calcining process, there is further heat recovery in the air-cooled
part of the fluid bed cooler. Primary air is pre-heated by indirect
heat exchange in a counter-current flow to the alumina, at the
same time the alumina is cooled. At the outlet of the fluid bed
cooler the alumina is discharged to a mechanical or pneumatical
transport system via a pressure seal.
The primary air delivered by blowers is first pre-heated in the
fluid bed cooler and then introduced into the fluid bed furnace
through the nozzle grate of the furnace.
Blowers deliver the secondary air for the fluidisation of the fluid
bed cooler. The secondary air is distributed to the compartments
of the fluid bed cooler in such a way that a uniform degree of
fluidisation is obtained. In the liftduct 2 the preheated air is
supplemented with additional air, which is also delivered from
blowers.
Pre-Operational Activities
Fully Automated Gas- and Solids Purge
Safety standards usually required a gas purge prior to the restart
of a calciner. In addition to the gas purge a solids purge with
controlled solids discharge from the plant is recommended from
an operational point of view in order to achieve defined restart
conditions.
All recently commissioned Outotec CFB-calciners provide
automated purge sequences which supervise the gas purge and
solids discharge from the entire plant. Relevant equipment will be
automatically started, valves opened as well as flow and pressure
controllers set to designated purge set values. The controlled
solids purge is designed to retain a certain solids inventory in the
furnace group in order to achieve better temperature stability
when restarting the hydrate feed.
Fully Automated Preheat Burner and Burner Management System
for Fuel Injection Lances
Each of the new calciners for Rio Tinto Alcan in Gove is
equipped with one preheat burner and four lances for heavy fuel
oil (HFO). Additionally they have a separate set of natural gas
(NG) lances in anticipation of natural gas being available to the
site at a later stage.
To improve the operability of the calciners, the preheat burner and
the fuel injection lances are fully automated through the
Distributed Control System (DCS) and are also monitored by a
Safety Instrumented System (SIS) with an implemented Burner
Management System (BMS). To put the preheat burner into
operation, the operator at the panel can order the BMS via the
DCS to start the burner, which is done then by a fully automated
sequence. Once the burner is started successfully, the panel
operator can modulate the burner load to heat up the calciner. The
degree of automation now enables swifter heat up of the calciner
after a trip.
New calciners equipped with fully automated preheat burners will
be automatically preheated according to a predefined heat up
curve (e.g. 70 K/h). Thus no further panel operator action will be
required during preheat of a calciner. After the automated
preheating cycle, the operator will be enabled to initiate the
automated plant start sequence.
Further, the lances are controlled in a similar way by the BMS.
Once the calciner furnace is above the minimum safe ignition
temperature the operator starts up the fuel injection system in a
similar manner to the preheat burner. When the lances are set in
operation and the fuel demand is increasing or decreasing then the
appropriate number of lances are started or stopped automatically.
Therefore, an operator is no longer needed for the lances and this
consequently speeds up the process of putting sufficient lances in
operation.
This approach was applied in the design of the calciners in Gove
where the customer wanted the possibility for a dual fuel system
to be able to change from one fuel to another without reducing the
production rate of the calciner. When fully implemented, it will be
possible for the operator to mix the fuel supply according to the
energy demand, but also to the available combustion air
independent from the different air requirements of the fuels. The
fuel flows will be controlled by the total energy demand to
maintain the calcination temperature. Figure 2 demonstrates the
control philosophy. Here the percentage of delivered energy is
plotted versus a control value set by the operator. A control value
of 0-5% means only heavy fuel oil is supplied and a value of 95-
100% corresponds with only natural gas supply. Every value
between these margins corresponds with a percentage of the total
energy demand by the furnace temperature control system being
delivered in the form of heavy fuel oil. The difference represents
the energy demand supplied in the form of natural gas.
100
Percentage of Energy
NG
Delivered by Fuel
75
50
HFO
25
0
0 25 50 75 100
Operator Choice of NG-Ratio on Energy Demand
Figure 2: Control of fuel mixture for a dual fuel operated calciner
Operational Activities
Automated Plant Start Sequence
Outotec’s recently commissioned calciners provide semi- material from 100 % of design capacity to about 25 %, the furnace
automated plant start sequences and procedures which are guiding temperature was kept stable, thus maintaining a constant product
the operator through the plant start up. In future, new installations quality.
will be equipped with fully automated start up sequences which
will – after being initiated by the panel operator – automatically
introduce fuel, start all relevant equipment, commence hydrate
feed and ramp the plant up to a preselected capacity.

Improved Furnace Temperature Control

The temperature in the furnace is controlled by the fuel oil flow.

However it might be possible that the amount of hydrate been fed
to the furnace is fluctuating. The fluctuation can be caused by an
uneven ESP solid discharge or even an uneven hydrate feed via
the hydrate feed screw. If the feed to the furnace is reduced the
temperature will rise. The velocity of this rise is dependent on the
amount of hydrate missing and on the response time of the thermo
couple. However this could lead to unacceptable high or low
temperatures finally resulting in a plant equipment safety trip.

To improve the furnace stability under the conditions described
above, Outotec has implemented a furnace temperature feed
forward control strategy where the hydrate mass flow is measured
just before it enters the furnace. Fluctuations in this signal are
used in a feed forward loop to increase or decrease fuel flow as
appropriate.
Figure 3 illustrates the re-start procedure of a CFB calciner over a
time period of several hours. The diagram shows the furnace
temperature, the furnace temperature set point, the heavy fuel oil
flow (HFO) and the hydrate feed during the re-start period up to
nominal load. It can be seen that the fluctuation of the furnace
temperature is even with load changes from almost zero hydrate
feed capacity to nominal load in the range of 10 degrees.
Figure 4: Rapid load change in a calciner from 235 t/h to 60 t/h
within 10 minutes.
Start-up Performance of Alunorte
The latest CFB calciners –2 x 3500 tpd at Gove and 4 x 3300 tpd
at Alunorte - have proven to be very easy to operate and fast in
start-up from preheat to full capacity. This is demonstrated in
Figure 5, where the capacity is plotted versus the time in minutes.
At t = 0 min, preheating is finished and furnace temperature is
approx. 830°C, ready for the start of the heavy fuel oil lances. It
takes only 100 minutes from the start of the heavy fuel oil lances
to 100% of the calciner design capacity.

120
(Actual Fuel Flow)/(Full Capacity Fuel Flow), -

100

80
Calciner Capacity in

60

40

20

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Figure 3: Furnace temperature feed forward control. time, min
Max. deviation from set point ~10°C. Figure 5: Calciner capacity over time after re-start.

Load Change in a Calciner
In Figure 4 a load change in the calciner from 235 t/h to 60 t/h of
hydrate feed within 10 minutes is shown. This rapid load change
was necessary due to a failure in the hydrate delivery to the
calciner. It can be seen that fuel oil flow follows the hydrate flow
with a certain time delay. Even with this rapid change in feed
The characteristics of some important temperatures within the
calciner are shown in Figure 6. The furnace temperature increases
rapidly after starting the oil lances. The temperatures in the feed
preheating stages are established within seconds of balancing
hydrate feed to the heat generation in the furnace. On the other
hand, temperatures in the alumina cooling stages increase to
nominal values comparatively slowly due to the delay in
discharge of alumina from the furnace.
120
Furnace
Temperature as percentage of value at
100
80
steady state, %
Cooling Stage 1
60
Cooling Stage 2
40
20
0
0 50 100
Figure 6: Important process temperatures after re-start of calciner.
When the plant is shut down, all solids are removed from the
vessels to the fluid bed cooler by means of the blowers. This is
done to avoid blockages during restart. The alumina discharge
from the calcining stage is closed at the beginning of hydrate feed
and stays closed until enough inventory is built up in the furnace.
Figure 7 shows two of the latest calciners operating in Gove,
Australia were the above described technology is already applied.
Figure 7: Two calciners 3500 tpd capacity each.
Gove, NT, Australia
Post-Operational Activities
Automated Plant Shut Down
Post-operational activities are currently semi-automatically and
include sequences to stop blowers, ESP rectifiers, rappers,
discharge conveyors and other equipment. In future applications
the semi automated sequences will be further developed and
combined with a controlled shutdown sequence in order to
achieve a safe and defined plant status and increased reliability
factor [6]
Conclusions
The reduction in real instrumentation costs has encouraged the
installation of more instruments leading to a better monitoring of
the process. Using this additional data, several automated
procedures were developed. The targets for this automation were
the reduction of operational cost and risks. Besides the pre-
occupation of operators with standard tasks will be significantly
reduced
The automation activities are divided into pre-operational,
operational and post-operational activities and samples from
industrial scale plants for each area are given. Even upset
conditions do not lead to a trip of the plant.
150 200 250 300 350 400
time, min The new developed furnace temperature feed forward control
assures constant furnace temperatures even at rapid and
significant load changes. Product quality from the CFB calciner
can therefore be kept consistent not only at constant loads, but
also during the load changes.
Acknowledgment
Outotec would like to thank the engineers and operations
personnel of Alunorte and Rio Tinto Alcan for their professional
support and appreciates their contributions to the recent
developments in CFB technology.
References
[1] D.J. Brodie, H.W. Schmidt, “Custom Design Fluid Bed
Calciner for Nabalco Pty. Ltd.”, Proceeding of 5th International
Alumina Quality Workshop, (1999), Bunbury, Australia
[2] Y.Yetmen, H.W. Schmidt, Large Units for Alumina
Calcination Plants with improved Technology “ Int. Conference
on New development in Metallurgical Process Technology
Proceedings VDEM, pp 369-375 (1999)
[3] Michael Missalla, Cornelis Klett, Roger Bligh, “Design
Developments for Fast Ramp-up and Easy Operation of New
Large Calciners”, TMS Light Metals (2007)
[4] A. Squires, “Origins of the Fast Fluid Bed, Advances in
Chemical Engineering”, Vol. 20, Fast Fluidisation (Ed. Kwauk,
M.), Academic Press (1994), pp 4-35
[5] H.W. Schmidt, M. Ströder, G. Singh, M. Sant’ana, J. Ribeiro,
J. Piestrzeniewicz, M. Cable, “Improved Health and Safety
Conditions and Increased Availability in Large Alumina
Calcining Units”, TMS Light Metals (2005)
[6] P.Hiltunen, R.Bligh, C.Klett, M.Missalla, H.W.Schmidt
“How to Achieve High Availability with Large Calciners and
Avoid Unforeseen Downtime”, TMS Light Metals (2008)
[7] L.Reh,” New and Efficient High Temperature Process with
Circulating Fluid Bed Reactors”, Chem. Eng.Technol. 18 (1995)
page 75-89