AMPO POYAM VALVES has developed and recently supplied an emergency shutdown integrated system for Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL), alumina refineries in Australia. The system has been tailored and designed by the in-house Ph.D. level “INTEGRATED SMART SOLUTIONS (ISS)” experts in tight collaboration with the AMPO SERVICE team, who takes care of aftermarket and develops custom-made engineered solutions for worldwide end users/operators of the mining and energy sectors. The system consists of six 20” 600 lbs slurry angle valves, six Hydraulic Power Units (HPU) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) as well as six oil accumulators.
Located in Gladstone, Queensland, on the East coast of Australia, this SIL1-rated emergency shutdown integrated system will be shortly installed in the flash tank area of the alumina refinery, after the digestion unit. This smart system assures valve closure in case a command is received from the plant Emergency Shutdown System (ESD). Hydraulic accumulators guarantee valve closure even if electric power is down. This control system has maximum priority and overrides any other order.
The dual control system also has a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) for valve positioning. DCS (Distributed Control System) controls the valve position using an optical fibre communication system and can be controlled in 1% increments.
The emergency shutdown system also includes a condition monitoring system to monitor critical parameters such as oil level, temperature, pressure, and valve position, which are transmitted to the plant DCS (Distributed Control System) using the beforementioned optical fibre communication system. The electrical enclosure also includes vortex coolers to assure long service life under high temperature conditions. The enclosure is moreover IP65, keeping the system isolated from outside contamination.
