Alcoa’s Kwinana alumina refinery in Australia was recognised for excellence in the Australian mining industry, being named ‘Minerals Processing Plant of the Year’ at the annual Australian Mining Prospect Awards. The award is presented to an organisation which has improved productivity, safety, and environmental standards or has reached notable milestones using new technology, innovative processes or techniques.

Kwinana was honoured largely for its carbon capture technology which locks up significant amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. The Kwinana plant has the capacity to lock up 70,000 t of carbon dioxide each year. “That’s the equivalent of reducing the emissions of 17,500 cars,” said Alcoa TDG Residue, Development Manager, Dr David Cooling.

The Technology Delivery Group (TDG), Alcoa’s global refining research and development group based at Kwinana, has set a challenge to the rest of the alumina industry with the creation of carbon capture. It locks up carbon dioxide from a nearby ammonia plant, showing how industry can form sustainability partnerships to re-use waste products. Alcoa Western Australia Residue Manager Allan Bermingham said: “We’re investigating options for deployment of the technology across all three of our Western Australia refineries, which could lead to carbon dioxide savings of 300,000 t/y.”

Alcoa’s Western Mining Group was also recognised at the awards ceremony with a Highly Commended in ‘Innovative Mining Solutions’ category for a bearing lifting jig developed by employees from its fixed plant department. Manager of Mines, Bill Knight, said: “This is a great example of an engineering solution being applied to solve a safety challenge and demonstrates the creativity of solving problems at the source by the people who perform the work.”

Alcoa invests over $15 million a year in research and development and employs over 80 scientists, engineers and support staff to work on developing processes and equipment to support cleaner production and maximum efficiency at Alcoa refineries worldwide.

The TDG is the western world’s largest refining research and development group. It is also the largest gathering of industrial scientists and engineers in Western Australia, and has the largest number of PhDs working together in Western Australia outside of a university or CISRO (Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).