ANGLO American Platinum’s (Amplats’s) Waterval smelter near Rustenburg has started to draw up to 10% of its energy from a new R175m clean power plant that uses waste energy from processing.
Mining companies, which are among Eskom’s biggest customers, have been seeking cheaper and more reliable sources of power as the utility struggles to meet demand.
The 4.9MW co-generation plant will bring down Amplats’s electricity bill, free power from Eskom’s grid for other users and will produce no carbon or other emissions, unlike electricity generated from coal.
The plant uses the first application in a smelter of a simple technology, organic Rankine cycle (ORC). Previously, ORC has only been used to generate electricity from geothermal heat source
The Eternity power plant is owned by H1 Holdings and Vuselela Energy. Investec Bank provided the debt and part of the initial equity, which it has sold to H1 Holdings. The project was kickstarted by a R30m grant from the Department of Trade and Industry under its critical infrastructure programme.
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies opened the plant yesterday. He said on the sidelines that the department was supporting with grants a number of other innovative green energy initiatives, some of which had won awards.
The department wanted companies to understand that sustainability was an element of competitiveness and SA’s leading companies were all taking this seriously, he said. Energy efficiency was also important, as was mineral beneficiation. The Eternity project ticked these boxes.
Malebo Mabitje-Thompson, the department’s deputy director-general in the incentive development and administration division, said grants of up to R30m would be made per project, under the critical infrastructure programme, subject to conditions. This grant was intended to be a catalyst, not the sole source of funding.
In any year the department was considering no fewer than 10 such projects, which should have wider benefits for the economy, she said.
Investec Bank’s head of power and infrastructure finance, Fazel Moosa, said the Eternity plant was providing power to Amplats at an estimated cost of 65c/kWh compared with an Eskom average tariff for 2015 of 78c/kWh.
The power plant uses water at a temperature of 240°C in the smelter’s converter cooling circuit to heat pentane gas to drive a turbine connected to a generator. The conversion of fuel to energy is 20%, which is low compared with about 35% for older coal-fired power stations, since the heat source is cooler.
The advantage is that the technology allows the power plant to cycle up to maximum capacity and cycle down in step with the smelter.
The plant will be operated by Vuselela Energy, which developed the plant in collaboration with Amplats. As a result of the adaptations needed to the ORC technology to fit a smelter, Vuselela has registered thermal harvesting patents for this process in SA.
Two weeks ago, Amplats said it had agreed to sell its three Rustenburg mines and two concentrators to Sibanye Gold. The deal did not include the Waterval smelter.
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