Dubal, one of the largest single-site aluminium smelters in the world, won an honourable mention for its power expansion project at a major energy conference held in the US city of Las Vegas.

Dubal’s unique GTX project, which was presented by Tayeb M M H Al Awadhi, vice president   Power & Desalination, at Power-Gen Asia, held in Singapore last year, won the Project of the Year 2011 “Honourable Mention Best Gas-Fired Project” at the Power-Gen International 2011 conference.

A feasibility study showed that the annual average generation efficiency of the Dubal Power Plant complex could be improved by installing a GTX cogeneration plant; and that the annual fuel consumption for power generation purposes could be reduced by about 4 per cent.

The new technology and new process concept is not only capable of accommodating the increase in power production and steam management, but is also more flexible to accommodate the downtime and maintenance requirements resulting from operating the existing steam turbines on peak load.

By enhancing the steam turbine output to peak operation, or replacing an existing Steam Generator while on maintenance, the GTX plant has enabled an annual average increase in overall fuel free steam turbine output of over 50 MW while the surplus steam directed to desalination plant produces additional water, a statement said.

Accordingly, the annual average station efficiency rose from 43 per cent to 44.5 per cent, according to the statement.

The new GTX block has introduced 220 MW of reserve capacity, which has been utilized to increase the load carrying demand by 150 MW while the spare 70 MW has reduced demand for one Frame 9B gas turbine.

The GTX project, which cost $183 million, is the first of its kind in scale and application, as integration with CCPP and desalination has never been done before. It’s also a first in the aluminium industry, where no similar GTX projects are known, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service