UC RUSAL (HKSE code 486, Moscow Exchange Code RUAL), one of the world's largest aluminium producers, plans to install over 20 modern dry gas scrubbers at its smelters by 2025; the design of the new gas treatment systems was developed by the company's own R&D business units. The new equipment removes up to 99.5% of hydrogen fluoride and solid fluorides from the exhaust fumes of aluminium smelters.
The project to develop its own in-house technology for 'dry' gas treatment centres (DGTC) was launched by the company in 2016. In October 2019, the Bratsk Aluminium Smelter launched another DGTC that had been designed and manufactured by UC RUSAL's R&D business units – SIBVAMI (Irkutsk) and RUSAL ETC (Krasnoyarsk). Today similar dry gas treatment centres are already in operation at the production facilities in Shelekhov and Novokuznetsk.
On the whole, as part of the implementation of the environmental protection action plans 2020–2024 will see the construction and commissioning of 17 more DGTC at RUSAL Bratsk, RUSAL Novokuznetsk and IrkAZ.
'What makes this project unique for UC RUSAL is that it uses patented design solutions that have allowed the company to migrate to DGTC that have been designed and manufactured completely in house as part of the Green Soderberg process instead of using foreign solutions because the company's own designs have proved to be more effective in terms of performance and cheaper,' noted UC RUSAL Chief Technical Officer Victor Mann.