Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa, (previously Bateman Africa), the operating arm in South Africa of the global Tenova Mining & Minerals group, has been awarded the Boiler Emissions Abatement (BEA) Plant project from Impala Platinum Limited – Refineries, in South Africa. 

The BEA Plant project is believed to be the first of its kind in Africa and is the largest air environmental plant order that Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa has received to date. The project will result in the installation of an integrated plant, capable of efficiently and effectively removing pollutants, such as fly ash particulate, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the boiler flue gas, exceeding the requirements of South Africa’s National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act.

Impala Platinum Limited – Refineries, situated in Springs, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, uses a steam driven process across its Base Metals Refinery and Precious Metals Refinery for matte conversion and purification into a marketable products.  An Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) is currently used to reduce particulate content of the flue gases discharging from the six-boiler steam plant.  This plant configuration is no longer sufficient to comply with the requirements of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act and as a result, the existing ESP will be decommissioned and replaced with the new BEA Plant.

The BEA Plant is being designed to provide the most economical solution, while maintaining a low degree of technical risk and making optimal use of scarce resources.  Complying with OHS Act, ISO9000 and ISO14000, the plant will reduce particulate matter (PM) from the boiler flue gas to less than 25 mg/Nm3, Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) to less than 200 mg/Nm3, Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) to less than 150 mg/Nm3, as well as improve existing boiler heat recovery and boiler feed water systems. In addition, it will produce a minimal amount of waste residual, reducing the environmental impacts from waste handling or disposal.

The major components of the BEA Plant will be an ELEX catalytic gas cleaning system for removal of NOx gases; three economisers for boiler heat recovery and a new boiler feed water system; a Simatek dry flue gas cleaning system with four Simatek pulse jet bagfilter modules, a lime reagent storage and dosing system for SO2 and PM removal; and a dry particulate waste pneumatic transfer system.

Design and engineering work will be carried out in collaboration with major subcontractors, but will be controlled in-house. Fabrication of specialised equipment will take place overseas, with the bulk of the general equipment being fabricated locally in South Africa.

The contract was awarded in July 2013 and design and engineering work has commenced, to run concurrently with procurement activities until the end of the year. Site work, which will take place in both green and brownfield environments, is expected to commence in April 2014 and is estimated to be completed in December 2015. 

One of the challenges of the project is the need to limit plant downtime, as the plant operates 24 hours per day throughout the year, with a planned shutdown lasting only 60 hours once a year.  The plant configuration will ensure minimal downtime work with only two major tie-ins, scheduled for the June 2014 planned shut-down. Strategic by-passes and equipment redundancy have also been provided for where applicable, to ensure that the new BEA Plant does not lead to any stoppages to the existing steam plant. 

“This project is a further order from Impala Platinum Ltd to Tenova Mining & Minerals, which previously traded as Bateman Africa, which has installed more than 10 Electrostatic Precipitators at their various mining locations.  Such much valued repeat work is testimony to Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa’s continuing success in supplying pollution control systems that meet and exceed the high standards required by industry.  Our ability to provide reliable and effective systems is based on our world class technology and our knowledge and experience gained through supplying more than 2 700 dust and fume control systems,” says Felix Fongoqa, Executive Chairman of Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa.

Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa, a Level 3 contributor to BBBEE, is the South African operating arm of the global Tenova Mining & Minerals group, focusing on the provision of total innovative solutions across the full mining and minerals industry value chain in South Africa. World-class engineering, bulk materials handling systems and equipment, including solid/liquid separation, water and wastewater treatment solutions, comprehensive after-market services and considerable skills and competencies tailored to local conditions are provided.

Tenova Mining & Minerals is a total integrated solutions provider to the global mining, bulk materials handling and minerals beneficiation and processing sectors, offering innovative technological solutions and full process and commodity knowledge across the mining & minerals industry value chain.

Tenova is a worldwide supplier of advanced technologie, products andengineering services for the metals and mining industries. For more information visit www.tenova.com

Technical Enquiries: Contact: Theo Nkisimane    e-mail: theo.nkisimane@ tenova.com