“RA-550 technology is a great contribution in our pursuit for more efficient and more environmentally friendly aluminium production”- Mr. Viktor Mann, Technical Director, UC RUSAL

UC RUSAL, the global leader in aluminium production, recently launched the first RA-550 pot of new generation running at over 550 kA at the Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter. According to design documents, an RA-550 cell of the energy-efficient new pot consumes around 12 kW*h/kg of aluminium- around 10-15% less than previous generations, and one pot can produce 4.21 tonnes of aluminium per day, which is about twice as much as the daily output of a RA-300 pot currently used at SAZ. Mr. Victor Mann, the Technical Director of UC RUSAL, who had termed the launch of RA-550 as 'a technical and engineering breakthrough’, shared with AlCircle the key benefits of the new pot in terms of energy-efficiency. He also answered queries regarding RUSAL's other upcoming projects.

Mr. Mann has been heading RUSAL's Technical division since 2005. His accountabilities span R&D, engineering and design capabilities, developing and introducing new innovative technologies, modernization of production facilities, and start-up and commissioning of green-field and upgraded capacities. Here is an excerpt from his interview with AlCircle:

AlCircle: In-house R&D and design resources have always been the key competitive advantage of RUSAL. Now, that you’ve launched the first RA-550 pot of new generation at the Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter, what do you aim to achieve through it in terms of productivity increase, and how?
 

Mr. Mann: Development of the RA-550 technology began two years ago, and the start-up marks a very important milestone for the Company. RA-550 pot is basically a new technological platform for the Company. Following tests and confirmation of operational performance, such pots will be installed at our operating smelters in the course of retrofitting old facilities and at new smelters of RUSAL.

Currently, our Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter (SAZ) runs a pilot site for RA-550. We plan to achieve the amperage of 570 kA and the electricity consumption on sell of less than 11,800 kWh per tonne of aluminium, which is significantly below the industrial global average of 13,403 kWh per tonne of aluminium produced, according to the International Aluminium Institute data. Before the end of the year, four more RA-550 pots will be started up at the pilot area at SAZ, followed by three pots in 2017.

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AlCircle: Sustainable manufacturing and emission reduction are increasingly important these days. [Even RUSAL President Oleg Deripaska was very categorical when he talked about turning climate talks in Paris into action in the beginning of this year.] How do you expect the RA-550 technology to help you in this direction?

Mr. Mann: The key benefit of the new pots is their energy efficiency. A RA-550 cell consumes around 12 kW*h/kg of aluminium, which is 10-15% less than previous generations. According to design documents, one pot will produce 4.21 tonnes of aluminium per day, which is about twice as much as the daily output of a RA-300 pot currently used at SAZ.

Design and technical improvements made RA-550 lighter, more compact and more environmentally efficient. In particular, the exhaust gas treatment efficiency will reach 99%, and pot tending will be automated wherever possible.

RA-550 technology is a great contribution in our pursuit for more efficient and more environmentally friendly aluminium production. Back in 2015, RUSAL announced our new environmental goals. These include 15% less specific GHG emissions at our aluminium smelters by 2025 from 2014 level and less 3,400 GWh energy consumption at our aluminium smelters by 2020 compared to 2011 level. Wider use of RA-550 pots across aluminium smelters of the Company will be among those elements that will help us reach these ambitious goals.

AlCircle: What other R&D initiatives your company is planning to further lower the carbon emission?

Mr. Mann: I would like to highlight that currently RUSAL already has one of the lowest carbon footprints in the industry as we benefit from access to clean, renewable hydro power for our smelters. Over 90% of aluminium we produce is produced with hydro energy. However, we have strong commitments to decrease our carbon footprint even further, and R&D team is actively involved in bringing the climate change solutions for the Company.

First of all, we continue to implement one of the most important environmental projects – Green Soederberg. Green or EcoSoederberg is one of our priority modernisation projects. This technology drastically reduces emissions of pot gases into the atmosphere, increases the energy efficiency of smelting, and reduces manual labour. In terms of eco-efficiency, EcoSoederberg is very close to the cleanest technologies used in the industry, in partiular, to the baked anode technology. EcoSoederberg cells are being installed at our Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk, Irkutsk and Novokuznetsk aluminium smelters.

Alongside with implementing advanced technologies, much attention is paid to increasing the operational efficiency of existing fume treatment equipment. BrAZ completes upgrading two fume treatment centres switching them to high-performance bag filters. By the end of 2016, the smelter will have as much as five dry scrubbers. BrAZ and IrkAZ are replacing electrostatic precipitators for treatment of potroom fumes.

Among other innovations, automatic alumina supply systems have been introduced at the currently operating production facilities that were not equipped with them previously. Steady and timely alumina supply serves to stabilise the process of electrolytic reduction, thus lowering the anode effect frequency – the cause of PFC (perfluorocarbons) emissions. The introduction of such systems, along with modified approaches to monitoring the reduction process, raising personnel awareness and application of industry best practices, have together helped to achieve a reduction of PFC emissions by more than 80% since 1990.

The Company is implementing an upgrade of its currently operating capacities, switching to the use of pre-baked anode cells and automatic anode effect quenching. These cutting-edge reduction technologies are being actively implemented at the Company’s recently constructed production facilities. This helps to achieve a 20%-30% cut in greenhouse gas emissions as compared to what the technologies employed by the operating production facilities cause. And these refer not only to direct greenhouse gas emissions, but equally to indirect emissions of electric power plants producing energy. Stronger electric current helps to cut specific energy consumption per tonne of aluminium, which boosts the energy efficiency of the production process, thus curtailing greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generating power plants making up the country’s power system and running on fossil fuel.

Finally, we are working hard to find a way to eliminate the second largest greenhouse gas emissions source – oxidation of anodes made from carbon blocks. Eliminating carbon from the aluminium production process would make aluminium totally carbon neutral, provided energy generated without greenhouse gas emissions is used. RUSAL is currently involved in the development of revolutionary inert anode cells. Once the required quality of aluminium is obtained, the inert anode technology will be adopted by all of the Company’s production facilities.

AlCircle: Tell us in brief about RUSAL’s upcoming modernisation programmes.

Mr. Mann: If we’re talking specifically about aluminium production, in 2016, key upgrading areas are still increasing the output of value-added products, reducing electricity consumption, mitigating raw material risks, and decreasing environmental load in our regions of presence.

Two new projects were opened to improve the quality of our products. The first one provides for installing a system of aluminium purification in crucibles at SAZ that will allow meeting customer’s requirements to the metal purity and increasing the output of slabs intended for the Asian market by 20,000 tonnes per year. The second project provides for construction of a pilot casthouse at KrAZ to minimise the lead time and reduce costs when developing and launching the industrial production of new products.

Just recently, to reduce electricity consumption and unify pot relining, we opened a project of filling blooms with cast iron at BrAZ. In 2017, IrkAZ plans to complete a project of upgrading a crude coke calcination kiln aimed at reducing purchases of raw materials from China by 70,000 tonnes per year.

AlCircle: Worldwide, primary aluminium producers are struggling to remain profitable in the wake of rising electricity cost, not to mention other factors like overcapacity and price volatility. How does RUSAL manage to stay low-cost yet cash-positive?

Mr. Mann: Yes, indeed, the aluminium industry has been experiencing very challenging times.

Back in 2013 the prevailing economic conditions made the RUSAL management team respond quickly and effectively to ensure that the impact of the industry downturn was eliminated. Strong focus on cost control and reduction of working capital played a significant part in ensuring RUSAL performed well. The most significant, though tough, step was implementation of the capacity rationalization programme and curtailment of our least efficient smelters mainly based in the European part of Russia and Urals.

Overall, RUSAL reduced its aluminium production capacity by around 650ktpa, and since 2013, our aluminium production levels have been flat at around 3.6mn tonnes per year from 4.2mn tonnes in 2012.

In addition, our focus on efficiency has been spread across all the aspects of our operation: from raw materials procurement and more efficient logistics to operational improvements at every single unit. This is where R&D stepped in with support to the teams at our smelters. Numerous projects have been implemented at all of our sites to help increase efficiency and minimize costs.

Since the second half of 2014, the Company’s efforts were supported by external factors such as the depreciation of the Russian Rouble and decrease in prices of purchased raw materials (especially those liked to oil prices).

As a result, RUSAL reduced its average cost of production from US$1,907 per tonne in 2013 to US$1,330 at the end of the third quarter this year, which is one of the lowest in the industry. Our EBITDA margin was 20% as at the end of the third quarter which puts RUSAL among the world’s most efficient aluminium producers.

AlCircle: Do you believe that value-addition and downstream manufacturing is the ‘future’ of the global aluminium industry?

Mr. Mann: We live in a new era of supersonic speeds, instant messages, and sophisticated technologies. Especially today innovation is the major driving force in every economy and every industry. It is equally true for the aluminium production since our industry has to be on the front line of innovation to remain competitive versus other modern materials producers, to offer aluminium and alloys with most modern qualities and characteristics.

To achieve that, it crucial to work closer with the customers and end users of our products. This is the way to understand their expectations, develop and offer aluminium and its alloys with new characteristics and state-of-the-art qualities as solution to our customers’ most innovative ideas or even develop these ideas together. That’s what we are doing and that’s the way for the industry to develop.

AlCircle: What technology innovation is RUSAL working on to expand its value-added product portfolio?

Mr. Mann: Today the transportation sector is the most important driver of demand growth for aluminium for the coming years. That is why RUSAL’s special focus is on producing alloys for the automotive industry. Increased global automotive demand has led to our cast house investments into rolling slab and large diameter extrusion billet.

RUSAL is already a well-established supplier of the wheels makers, especially in Europe, Russia and Asia, delivering nearly all major players in this industry and targets to grow its market share from 10% to 25% within 5 years. Looking at the strong light weighting trend within the automotive industry, the focus is now non-wheel aluminium applications.

RUSAL supplies 5xxx and 6xxx series rolling slabs for application in automotive structural parts. Key body-in-white (BiW)-related investment projects are implemented at our Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter to fully dedicate one of the casting centres for 5xxx and 6xxx series automotive alloys production.

We have also developed and patented a proprietary technology to produce 5xxx series alloys with controlled grain size structure at the Bratsk Aluminium Smelter for European customers – producers of casting moulds for plastic pressure die casting.

Overall, RUSAL’s strong focus is on the higher end of the upstream business that is value-added products (VAP). The share of VAP in RUSAL total sales in 2015 was 45%, and we target to further increase the production of VAP by up to 80%, in particular, through improvements to our smelters located in Siberia.

In 2015, RUSAL developed a group of revolutionary, sparingly alloyed, aluminium-scandium alloys. Having replaced costly scandium with transition metals, they were able to produce alloys 2.5 times cheaper than existing ones, without compromising their consumer properties. These ultra-hard aluminium alloys demonstrating excellent weldability and corrosion-resistance properties. Product samples were supplied to European customers for homologation in order to replace standard alloys. Aluminium-scandium alloys have great potential in the aerospace industry and can be also applied in other transport applications.

RUSAL continues expanding its competencies in the field of wire rod production from electrical conductor grade aluminium alloys. In 2015, the Kandalaksha Aluminium Smelter mastered production of wire rod from 6000 and 8000 series alloys.

In 2016 RUSAL started to produce AlSi10 foundry alloy that is used as a protective coating for steel structures. Its production in the form of large ingots (SOW) was launched at NkAZ.

IrkAZ and NkAZ actively develop the output of AlSi7MgCu0.5 and AlSi10MgMn foundry alloys for automobile components. SAZ continues successively supplementing its list of qualifications for supply of 6xxx series slabs for automobile rolled products. This metal is applied for producing car body elements.

Overall, in 2017 RUSAL commercialized the production of over 100 grades and sizes of new products.

AlCircle: Your company recently signed an agreement with SAUER Germany to develop 3D printing technology for aluminium and its alloys. Where do you see the technology reaching in the next few years?

Mr. Mann: The technology for 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has existed in some form since the 1980s. However, at that time the technology has not been capable enough or cost-effective for most end-product or high-volume commercial manufacturing.

As of today the 3-D printer market is transforming rapidly finding use beyond rapid prototyping. According to data of PwC, two-thirds of 100 industrial manufacturers have been using 3D printing. The global annual consumption of metal powders for 3D printing purposes, in particular, is estimated at about 100 tonnes for aluminium and 500-700 tonnes for other metals.

RUSAL is a forwarder at the corporate level in Russia to implement 3D printer production for commercial purposes. We signed a deal with the German SAUER GmbH, a member of DMG MORI, the largest manufacturer of hybrid 3D additive manufacturing machines in the world to develop the 3D printing technology for industrial use of aluminium and aluminium alloys. The technology will be used to print aluminium parts applied by customers in the machinery-producing, aerospace and automotive sectors.

As part of the arrangement, RUSAL will develop aluminium alloys for their conversion into powders, which will then be tested and qualified by SAUER equipment. We will also perform joint assessments of the quality of aluminium, aluminium alloys and powders produced for 3D printing. On its part, SAUER will provide the necessary equipment as well as supporting the setup of new production and promoting the products made using the new technology among its own customers.

RUSAL is currently implementing powder technology improvement projects to reduce the cost and new aluminium alloys for additive technologies to provide high performance characteristics ensuring ultimate tensile strength to be 550 ?P?, yield point to be 450 ?P?, process temperature to be 250 ? min.

RUSAL is very strong in R&D and manufacturing in aluminium powders, and by combining its efforts with DGM MORI to expand industrial use of the 3D technology, a Russian-based company has all the chances to become a leading global player in this sector.

 

Disclaimer: “The information presented herein is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The views and opinions shared in the interview section of www.alcircle.com are unique to the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of www.alcircle.com."

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