EMISSION CONTROL

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Aluminium smelting is a clean, quiet and relatively unobtrusive process.
In order to protect the environment, Tomago has implemented a comprehensive environmental management program.

EMISSION CONTROL

Tomago Aluminium has incorporated one the most advanced pollution-control and environmental protection equipment systems in the world.
Fumes and dust emitted by the pots pass through a fume treatment centre where impurities are removed through a dry scrubbing process. Additional dry scrubbers are used to clean gases produced during the baking of anodes.
This tight control over emissions, and the careful planning of work practices ensure this modern aluminium smelter provides clean and healthy working conditions to its employees while also taking care of the surrounding environment.
The emissions monitoring program conducted by Tomago Aluminium is one of the most comprehensive and detailed in any industry and all gaseous and particulate emissions are well within the requirements of the environmental regulations.
The dry-scrubbing systems at Tomago Aluminium are designed to ensure a very high degree of reliability.
This tight control over emissions, and the careful planning of work practices mean that a modern aluminium smelter has clean and healthy working conditions.
The emissions monitoring program conducted by Tomago Aluminium is one of the most comprehensive and detailed in any industry and all gaseous and particulate emissions are well within the requirements of Environmental Regulations.

The dry-scrubbing systems installed at Tomago have a number of features designed to ensure a very high degree of reliability, including:

  • Each potroom dry scrubber contains multiple individual filter units operating in parallel. Each unit has a fan and associated multi-cell banks of filter bags. Any one of the units can be shut down for fan or filter maintenance while the other units maintain the optimum level of performance.
  • Separate dry scrubbing systems serve the anode baking plants. Stand-by capacity is similarly incorporated into the design and operation of these systems.
    Dry scrubber operations are monitored and controlled by a fully automated system and are staffed 24 hours a day.
  • Filter bag failure is readily identifiable and the offending bag replaced.
  • The filter bags have an enormous surface area. Together, the filters of the three potlines have a surface area totalling 85,985m2 – equivalent to ten football fields.

This large area, coupled with the low speed of gas flow through the filter system, ensures the overall high filtering efficiency is maintained.

  • Emissions from all dry scrubber stacks are continuously monitored to determine gaseous fluoride levels and particulate matter.

The dry scrubbers are more than 99.8% efficient in removing fluoride and particulate matter from air released from the stacks.