Orbite Aluminae to take brick and mortar approach for HPA plant

Orbite Aluminae, the Canadian technology development firm has decided to take the brick-and-mortar route to build the decomposer and calcinator for their high purity alumina (HPA) product plant at Cap-Chat, Quebec.

The company had started out with the HPA pilot project and is now planning to expand it to a full-fledged, state-of-the-art HPA facility which will be able to produce one ton a day that can be extended to 3 tons a day within the next 12 months without any further significant capital investment.

“We have selected the brick-and-mortar approach instead of a castable monolith for the inner lining of the decomposer and calcinator. The extensive testing of the replacement materials at our Technology Development Center confirms that the materials selected will provide both the required purity of end product and the operational longevity that we were looking for,” Orbite CEO Glenn Kelly said.

The refractory installation is now due to start in January with commercial production due to start in the second quarter of 2015 after going through a number of delays, budget blowout as well as a senior management changeover in the past.

The project was initially proposed to become a smelter-grade and high purity alumina producer but now the company has changed its strategy, opting to focus on waste monetization initiative in 2015 and then the focus would be directed towards chloride process and the addition of the scandium and gallium recovery unit.

The technology used by Orbite has the ability to produce HPA and smelter grade alumina from a variety of raw materials including aluminous clay, bauxite, fly ash and hazardous red mud without leaving behind waste materials.