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WHAT WE
DO / OUR OPERATIONS / ALUMINA DIVISION / NIKOLAEV ALUMINA REFINERY
NIKOLAEV ALUMINA REFINERY
 When commissioned in July
1980, the Nikolaev alumina refinery was meant to produce 1 million tonnes of alumina
annually. By 2008 the refinery expanded its production capacity to over 1.4 million
tonnes.
The refinery area covers 480 hectares and includes a hydrometallurgy facility to
produce gallium metal. Nikolaev produces 13 tonnes of high purity gallium per year,
which is nearly 20 per cent of world demand. The technology for gallium production
was developed in-house.
The refinery employs about 1,500 people.
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Geography
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Located on the Black Sea coast in Ukraine,
at the confluence of the Southern Bug and Ingul rivers, Nikolaev is the major city
in the Nikolaev region, Ukraine. Nikolaev has a sea and river port, as well as a
railway station junction. In 1991, it had a population of 512,000 people. Industry
is largely represented by mechanical engineering (including ship building), light
and food industries, in addition to the Nikolaev alumina refinery.
The country of Ukraine, in South Eastern Europe, borders the Black Sea and the Azov
Sea. Ukraine covers an area of 603,700 sq km, and has a population of 46 million
people.
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Technology
The Nikolaev refinery incorporates Bayer process technology with high remperature
digestion from Pechiney.
Bauxite is sourced from Kindia (Guinea) and Guyana. The ore is transported in vessels
up to 50-60 kt in size, to the unloading port at the refinery site.
To learn more about the process of aluminium production, aluminium history and use
please visit http://www.aluminiumleader.com/en/
Certificates
The Nikolaev Alumina Refinery has achieved ISO 14001 environmental management certification
and OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety certification.
Development
The refinery's ongoing project aimed at boosting its annual capacity to 1.7 mln
tonnes of alumina, currently rates as one of the most significant investment projects
in the region. Activities targeting expansion of production, upgrade of equipment
and improvement of the refinery's KPIs are fully underway. Completed projects include
modernisation of the bauxite feeding conveyor; commissioning of a 'sweetening' scheme
at five tank-type digestion trains; replacement of five EPAS filters with MVZ-250
filters including installation of additional tanks; modernisation of the pump system
in the alumina production area. Among on-going activities are pre-commissioning
of the wet grinding ball mill; reconstruction of Evaporator Train 4 and the oxalate
removal unit.
Environment
In February 2008, DNV carried out a recertification audit of the refinery’s environmental
management system to confirm its compliance with the international standard ISO
14001:2004. Following the audit, the refinery received a confirmation of its compliance
with established standard environmental management systems.
The refinery completed the construction of Mud Disposal Area 2 and started to design
a project to reclaim the basin of Mud Disposal Area 1. The refinery continues construction
of local water treatment facilities and reconstruction of a storm collector.
All equipment that produces particulate pollutants is equipped with dust filters.
Despite a 1.8% increase in alumina output as compared to 2007, the gross air emissions
of pollutants were reduced by 5%. The improvement mainly relates to reduced consumption
of thermal energy per 1 tonne of alumina produced, which was one of the objectives
of the Champion project. As part of the project, the plant specialists successfully
stabilised the process flow, and reduced consumption of energy, which account for
40% of the alumina cash cost. Saving of heat subsequently allowed for the consumption
of steam, gas and electricity to be reduced.
The plant successfully operates a zero liquid discharge system, which completely
solves the problem of waste water discharge into the water supply. Production waste
water and storm run-off are diverted into Mud Storage Area 1, where it is settled
and is then re-introduced into the production cycle.
The International Aluminium Institute awarded RUSAL's Nikolaev alumina refinery
as a production facility with a high health and safety performance.
Management
General Director - Yuri Ovchinnikov
Contact information
nap@nap.mk.ua
Tel.: +380 512 692037
Fax: +380 512 692063
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