Gas purification facilities to be expanded in Sunndal

(March 27, 2007) Hydro has decided to invest approximately NOK 340 million in expanding the four gas scrubber units at the aluminium plant at Sunndalsøra, Norway. The work will be completed by November next year.

GAS PURIFICATION: Hydro's aluminium plant at Sunndalsøra has been extensively modernized in recent years, with investments totalling over NOK 6 billion. Now the fluorine recycling capacity is also being increased. (Photo: Dag Jenssen)

The purpose of the investment is to stabilize emissions of fluorine at a lower level. The expansion takes into account a future possible increase in aluminium production at the plant in the Sunndal municipality. At the same time, this is an environmental adaptation to enable Hydro's oldest prebake facility, Su III, to continue production for many years.

Each day, Hydro produces about 1,000 tonnes of molten aluminium using a total of 524 cells in the Sunndal potrooms. The gas scrubbers recover about 32,000 kilos of fluorine per day, and the fluorine is returned to the production process.

Measurements have shown that the purification capacity of the existing gas scrubbers is too low during the summer months, which has led to increased emissions of fluorine. After the expansion, purification capacity will be increased by 25-30 percent.

Work on expanding the gas scrubbers will begin this summer.