Paper: Ford/Lilley
Paper
Alusaf Hillside AluminiumSmelter,
Richards Bav J
R. F. Ford, CEng, MIStructE, PrEng, MSAICE
Dorbyl Structural Engineering
c. Lilky, CEng, MIStructE, PrEng, MSAICE
Engineering Management Services (Pty) Ltd
Synopsis
The paper describes the design and construction of an aluminium
smelter at Richards Bay, South Africa, for AlusaJ; which was
justified on the basis of unique cooperation agreements regarding
the major inputs to the process. Upon completion the smelter is
one of the world’s largest, and is probably the largest constructed
in one building phase. It describes the history of the project from
feasibility studies in 1991 to completion in 1995.
Introduction
Construction of the first aluminium smelter in southern Africa commenced
in 1969 witha plant of 52 OOOt p.a. capacity at the site of a new coal export
harbour at Richards Bay. The smelter was extended over the years, which
included the relocation of a smelter closed due to electricity price increas-
es in Japan during the198Os, to a final capacity of 170 OOOt p.a. Due to sig-
nificant progress made in aluminium reduction technology during South
Africa’s period of isolation, this original smelter lost its competitive edge
and reached a stage where closure was considered. To revitalise the com-
pany, the owner, Alusaf, looked at the construction of a greenfield smelter
and developed a unique costing basis for the major inputs into smelting,
which are electricity and alumina. The state-owned electricity generating
organisation, Eskom, had surplus power available from its modern coal-fired
power stations situated in the South African heartland, and following exten-
sive negotiations, agreements were reached on the pricing of electricity
linked to the London Metal Exchange aluminium price. Similar arrange-
ments were enteredinto with suppliers of alumina. These agreements, cou-
pled with the availability of an efficient and environmentally acceptable
aluminium smelting process, resulted in a decision to proceed with a 466
OOOt p.a. smelter. At the same time as the constructionof the new smelter,
a major upgradeof the existing smelter was undertaken, incorporating mod-
em technology to comply with international emission standards.
The aluminium smelting process
The production of aluminium involves the reductionof alumina by means
of an electrolytic process in a large refractory and carbon-lined steel con-
tainer called a pot.
furnace
Silos BakeGreen
anodes
Coal Electric power
(3730OOOt (6816000 M W )
Casthouse Electrolysis process
(576 pots)
Fig 1. Process flow diagram
The Structural Engineer/Volurne 74/No 19/1 October 1996
This requires large supplies of power, often in other smelters, provided
by hydroelectric plants. However, in the case of Hillside, the power will be
supplied from Eskom’s large coal-fired power stations.
The carbon lining of the pots serves as the cathode in the electrolysis
process and electricityis fed in througha suspended prebaked consumable
carbon block serving as the anode. Alumina is fed into the pot and
is reduced
into liquid aluminium at about 980°C using sodium aluminium fluoride
(cryolite) as the electrolyte. The Hillside smelter has 576 pots, each of
which will produce about 2.2tof molten metal/day. The metalis regularly
siphoned out of the pot and transported in refractory-lined crucibles to the
casthouse.
Gases emitted during the process are collected under the pot hoods and
ducted to four centralised dry-scrubbing plants which can achieve 98%
cleaning. Gaseous fluorides are adsorbed onto incoming alumina and col-
lected together with particulate fluorides by bag filters and recycled through
the pots.
A simplified process flow diagramis shown in Fig 1.
Project description
The smelter is located aonsite 1.Okm x 1.8km and comprises sixmain areas:
The reduction area, consisting of four potrooms, each 920m long com-
plete with maintenance workshops, alumina handling facilities, and gas
treatment centres.
Main electrical substations contain the 132 kV supply facilities, includ-
ing transformers, rectifiers, switchgear and MCC rooms.
The carbon area comprises the manufacturing plant for the anodes con-
sumed in the reduction process. This includes forming, baking, cool-
ing, assembly, storage and handling, together with fines treatment and
recycling of waste products.
The raw material area includes the bulk storage silos for alumina,
petroleum coke and liquid pitch, with the 3.5km-long conveying sys-
tem bringing the raw materials from the harbour. The ingot storage an
dispatch facility at the quayside also form partof this area.
The casting area is housed in the major casthouse building which con-
tains the holding furnaces, ingot casting lines, and all cooling and
maintenance facilities.
Baked anodes
(200000t)
m
scrubber
T-bar
Products
(466 OOOt
311
Paper: FordlLilley

=...-
l
Fig 2. Site layout

- The general facilities area includes the main administration building Lavalin of Canada. Aluminium Pechiney was responsible for the process
and all non-process facilities, together with roads, drainage, and utili-technology and operations management assistance and consequently pro-
ties. vided major input for the selection of equipment to the project managers.
The project team was initially located in Johannesburg for the design,
Environmental considerations inquiry issue, tender adjudication, and contract award. Thereafter it relo-
The Richards Bay area is situated some 180km north of Durban on the east- cated to thesite of operations some 700km away.
ern seaboard of South Africa. It encompasses coastal tropical forest and a All structural design was undertaken in South Africa, and tenders called
most important wetland community in the region which includes swamp for-for on a lumpsum and fixed-price basis. This concept was extremely unusu-
est, reedswamp and sedgeland. The wetlands support a large numberof trop- al, as the country had experienced periods of high inflation in the last 20
ical and subtropicalamphibianfauna aswell as manybirdspecies. years; however, fortunately during the period of the project, inflation had
According to theRed Datu Book, 13 of the bird species are recorded as being reduced to single-figure levels and was therefore easier to provide for.
rare and nineof intermediate status. A construction camp to house some 3200 workers was erected adjacent
Alusaf commissioned an environmental impact assessment which was to thesite in order to minimise transportation problems in the area. Site safe-
carried out by the University of Cape Town and the Council for Scientific ty was made top priority by the project managers and itis noteworthy that
& Industrial Research. Five sites were identified in the area and following no fatal accidents were experienced on thesite while expending24M man-
detailed evaluation, a site was recommended which, although it involved hours.
considerable additional capital cost to the client, was accepted by Alusaf. Owing to the fast-track nature of the project, changes in scope and detail
Linked to the project being approved environmentally by the authorities was occurred during the project and these were dealt with conventionally by the
a requirement to upgrade the existing smelter to modern international emis- means of variations to the lumpsum contracts. The combination of lump-
sion standards. All these conditions were metby Alusaf. sum fixed-price contracts and the fact that the project was undertaken dur-
ing a period of low activity in South Africa and Europe, which supplied
Programme some of the specialised equipment, contributedto the substantial cost sav-
The decision to proceed with the project, which was the country’s largest ing against budget mentioned previously.
private-sector investment, was given on 12 November 1992. first Theearth-
moving took place in June 1993, first concrete placed 4 months later, and Foundations
steelwork erection commenced at the end of January 1994. The smelter site is largely underlain by loose unconsolidated sands con-
The first aluminium ingot was caston 26 June 1995 and the smelter was taining intermittent layers of denser material, the consistency of which is
fully commissionedat 466 OOOt p.a. by mid- 1996. The smelter was complet- extremely variable. Consistent denser material suitable for pile founding is
ed 4 months early with a saving of E255M on the original budget of E1 300M. found only at depths exceeding 20m.
This fast-track performance equals the best construction programmes Analysis showed that, if the layers of denser material could be utilised
previously achieved in first-world countries. for support of the piles, considerable savings could be made. In order to
adopt such an approach a very detailed geotechnical investigation of the site
Project management was necessary. This was carried out by a specialist consultant, and the
An engineering, procurement and construction management joint venture results were incorporated into the pile design. Substantial savings were
company was formed between a South African company,EMS,and SNC- achieved through this approach.

312 The Structural Engineer/Volume 74/No 19/1 October 1996

 Paper: Ford/Lilley

-.. -. -
Fig 4. Steel erection on potroom1 showing purpose-made crane rig

tional requirement, 16m sections of the runwaygirders have tobe lifted into
. * . ..
I the roof area with speciallifting mechanisms.
L, The central passageway is also the established fixed area of each potroom
to allow the buildings to expand longitudinally outwards. Stringent erection
>-K
tolerances had to be maintained, and a high level of fabrication standards
was required. The long 450m sections of the potrooms on each side of the
central passageway were split up into five braced sections to allow for

G
- \ y - Y ? ? ?
.'
Fig 3. Piling in progress on potrooms3 & 4
The project required some 16 000 piles to be installed over a period of
12 months and, at the peak of activity, 21 rigs were engaged in installing
driven cast-in-place piles, four rigs were installing continuous-flight auger
piles, and four rigs were involved in the construction of large diameter
undersluny bored piles of 1.O to 1.5m diameter.
General design criteria for structures
The major aspects of the design philosophy adopted for the concrete and
steelwork were as follows:
- durability of the structures in the corrosive marine Richards Bay envi-
ronment in order to eliminate maintenance wherever possible
- robustness of the structures and foundations to provide the necessary
serviceability demands of the 365 day/year operation of the smelter
processes and state-of-the-art technology
- architecturally modem and aesthetic appearance in harmony with the
client's corporate image and major position in industry
- attention to design detail and constructability, from the largest to the
smallest components, together with optimisation to facilitate the fast-
track construction programme
- generally, all process buildings to comprise structural steel framed
buildings supported on piled foundations and clad in 1 .Omm-thickalu-
minium profiled sheeting
expansion joints. The cranerails are anchored near the central passage and
are fully continuous to the gable ends to allow for the smooth operation of
the PTA cranes.
In view of the considerable repetition of the structures, the contractor
utilised a high level of jigging in the workshops and proved the jigs by a trial
erection of two bays of the structure before entering into fullproduction.
The contractor also develooed a unioue svstem of erection which took
1 ,
into account the geographical location of the site which is subject to tor-
rential summer rains which can deposit 200mm in 24h. Whereas previous-
ly smelters have been erected using large tower or crawlercranes, in this
case only the main columns and crane girders were erected by crawler
cranes. The balance of the superstructure was constructed by means of two
25t lattice boom cranes supported on a travelling bridge which ran on the
permanent crane girders. This combination of cranage was able to erect
some 60t of steeVday in each potroom at peak production.
There are 100 OOOm3 of structural concrete and 19 500t of structural
steelwork in the potroom structures, which contain 576 reduction pots.
Casting area
The casthouse building covers an area of 12500m2and has associated facil-
ities for workshops, offices and equipment maintenance. The main build-
ing is 132mlong and 75m wide and houses eight reheat tilting furnacesand
five ingotcasting lines, each capable of producing at a rate of 20th.
Fig 5. Superstructure of potrooms I & 2 nearing completion

Major buildings
Potrooms
The potrooms consist of four buildings 920m long, 30m wide and 16.3m
high and are interlinked by passageways. The main portalframes of the pot-
rooms spaced at 12m centres support the heavy crane girders designed to
carry four 250t PTA (operating cranes) and one 200t pot transport crane. The
portals were designed as fixed base frames supported on a 3.5m-high RC
substructure.
The main central passageway accommodates a transfer gantry which
allows the operating cranes in the potrooms to be transported into an adja-
cent service building for maintenance. Likewise the 200t pottransport crane
laden with a pot requiring cathode reconstruction .can also be transported
to and from the potrooms for refurbishment. To achieve this major opera-

The Structural
EngineedVolume 74/No 19/1October 1996 313
 Paper: Ford/Lilley

The structure was designed as a braced frame with a central expansion

joint and continuous long-span trusses and roof girders supported on piled
foundations.
Heavy reinforced concrete raft foundations were provided for the ingot
casting plant, and complex piled foundations and pits support the tilting fur-
naces and equipment.

Anode bake furnaces

The two structural steel framed buildings housing the anode baking furnaces
are each 207m long, 35m wide and 22m highto eaves. The main fixed base
portal frames supporting the heavy welded plate girder crane gantries are
spaced at 11.85 m and comprise plate girder columns and rooflegs, and have
latticed rafters. The portal frames are supported on piled foundations that
were optimised to cater for complex combinations of loadings and strict set-
tlement criteria for the 250t capacity crane operations.
Thermal expansion effects are accommodated by the division of each
building into two vertically braced sections. The crane rails arecontinuous
Fig 6. Bake furnace constructionin progress with furnace substructure
in for the fulllength of the building and are anchored at the braced bay. There
foreground is 20 mom3 of concrete and 50OOt of steelwork in the buildings.

Raw materials storage

The main components of this unit are foursilos with an aggregate storage
capacity of 140 OOOm3, which exceeds the capacityof any other silocom-
plex in South Africa.
Two of the silos arededicated to alumina and are of 55 OOOt and 40 OOOt
capacity, 40.6m and 58.5m inside diameter and 46m high, respectively,
with spherical dome concrete roofs. The 55 OOOt silo isby far the largest silo
in South Africa and one of the largest in theworld. The other two siloswill
store petroleum coke and havecapacities of 23OOOt and 50OOt with 29mand
13m inside diameter, respectively.
All silos are on piled foundations using 1 .O m or 1.5m diameter, 40m
length augured piles cast under bentonite and socketed 5m into rock. Slide
construction was used for all four silos and, except for 5000t the coke silo,
all have prestressed main silo shells that are monolithic with the reinforced

I
concrete substructures and the shell roofs.
An interesting feature of this unit is the series of conveyor concrete piers,
the tallest of which is 40.3m high with a diamond shape hollowed cross-sec-
tion of 3.5m x 1.6m and a 250mm wall thickness.

Corrosion protection
The Richards Bay area has one of the severest environments in South Africa,
Fig 7.View of site with bake furnace buildingsand silo complex in the foreground being situated on the coast and subject to high summer humidity. The site

Aluminium/neoprene
bonded washer

Aluminium formed washer

1.6mm thick 60 x 45mm
Expansion slot inrib crest
as required for roof sheets
thangreateronly 12 metres 60 x 2Ommwasher
Neoprene
opes roof on long up side cloth
WW teflon
(rubber side down)

Gmde 304 6mm dia d s

self tapping screw

Insulation material
on steelwork

At end lap provide two no. 1Omm wide x 3mm sealer strips
with self adhesion to lower sheet.
b i d r i v esides
and
roof
surface
Top
the
fixing
on to upper
allow
for
o sheetU.O.N.)(every
crest second

Fig 8. Fixing detail for aluminium cladding

314 Structural EngineedVolume

The19/1 74/No October 1996
 Paper: Ford/Lill&y

can be classified as a ‘medium to severe’ environment in accordance with Geotechnical consultants: Davies Lynn & Partners
the South African Council for Scientific & Industrial Research’s atmos- Piling: Franki-Dura joint venture
pheric corrosion-rate map which relates ato200-300 pm corrosion ratep.a. Earthworks: Stocks Civils
The atmosphere contains high levelsof salts and industrial pollutants such Potroom civils: Grinaker / Murray & RobertdSpie Batignollesjoint venture
as chlorides and sulphur. Other major projects in the vicinity have suffered Potroom steelwork: Dorbyl Structural Engineering
greatly from corrosion problems with the associated high cost of mainte- Bake furnace civils: Wilson Bayly Holmes
nance. Bake furnace steelwork: Wadeville Engineering
As a result of these conditions, experienced local consultants were used Casthouse civils: Basil Read
to specify suitable paint systems. All structures were blast cleaned and coat-Casthouse steelwork: Cemenco Steel Structures
ed with inorganic zinc ethyl silicate to a thickness of 60-80 pm. For the Silo civils: Group Five Civils and Steffanuti& Bressan
upper structuresof the potrooms and bake furnace buildings this primer was
not overcoated due to the warm controlled environment in these buildings
during operating conditions.
The lower sections of these buildings and other structures which were
more exposed to the elements were overcoated with twin pack surface tol-
erant high-build epoxy to varying thicknesses and final decorative coats.
Some problems were experienced during application of the primer dur-
ing the Highveld winter when very low humidity is experienced. The major
fabricating workshops were located in this area, which is at an altitude of
approximately 1700m.The problems were overcomeby spraying the paint-
ed surfaces with water after application.
Due to the natureof the facility and the corrosion situation, Alusaf chose
plain aluminium cladding for the plant. Care was taken in the selectionof
fasteners having due regard to the different relative positions of the com-
ponents in the galvanic series.
A positive fixing system was chosen using grade 304 stainless steel self-
tapping screws, with washers as shown in Fig 8. Unfortunately, in the early
stages of cladding, cadmium-plated stainless steel self-tapping screws were
used. The cadmium plating which is provided for ease of installation into
the steelwork contributed to corrosion of the fastener after only 4 months
of installation. These were replaced with modified grade 304 self-tapping
screws with no coating, which eliminated the problem.

Socio-economic impact
The smelter was constructed during a period of political transition in South
Africa andat one stage during construction the project suffered some labour
unrest. It is of great credit to Alusaf andits project managers that labour dis-
ruptions were kept toa minimum. More than 75%of the peak labour force MANUAL
of 8500 was recruited and trained from the immediate vicinity of the smelter,
as were mostof the 1200 permanent employees. Itis expected that support The Institution of Structural Engineers
services to the smelter will generate a further 3000jobs and during the con-
struction period of the project it is estimated that 30 000 jobs were created
The Concrete Society
in the country as a whole.Foreign exchange earnings willamount to
L275M p.a.
Standard method of detailing
Conclusion
Alusaf displayed commendable foresight in embarking on this major pro-
structural concrete
ject at atime when many aluminium smelters worldwide were under threat Indispensable for all concrete detailers,
due to excess production being available on the market, with commensu- desigddetailers, E27 to members of the Institution
rate reduction in prices.The timing of the project also coincided with con- and/or the Society/€45 non-members
siderable excess manufacturing and construction capacity being available ____________________----------------------
in South Africa and Europe, which resulted in very competitive tendering. Order form
The fact that the project came in under budget and 4 months early was the The Institution of Structural Engineers
result of excellent cooperation between the client, management contractors,
and contractors, often under very difficult weather and labour conditions. VAT no. 497 6944 68
As a result, the clientis investigating other smelter opportunities in Africa. Standard method ofdetailing structural
The silo complex was awarded the prestigious 1995 Fulton Award for
excellence in the use of concrete, and the potroom structures have been concrete
awarded a Special Commendation Certificate of Merit 1996 by the South
Please supply copy(ies) of the Standard
African Institute of Steel Construction.
Finally, the project has demonstrated the ability of South African con-
method at €27 members/€45 non-members.
sultants, designers and contractors to compete in the world markets now Total remittance enclosed €
being opened up to them. Name Initials
Acknowledgments Organisation Title
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistanceof Alusaf Ltd, Alprom, Address
and Dorbyl Structural Engineering, in making available much background
information and for permission to publish this paper.
Client: Alusaf Ltd
Feasibility study: Engineering Management Services Membership no. (if applicable)
Technology supplier and operations management assistance: Remittances should be made payable to ‘SETO’, and for-
Aluminium Pechiney warded to the Institution of Structural Engineers, 11Upper
Engineering procurement and project management: Belgrave Street, London SWlX 8BH.
Alprom - a jointventure between EMS and SNC-Lavalin (Canada)

The Structural Engineer/Volume 74/No 19/1 October 1996 315