Osborne, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Project: Sodium Bicarbonate Plant Expansion

In 1998 GJC was engaged to carry out the electrical and control design for a plant expansion to 50ktpa sodium bicarbonate. The expansion involved the design and installation of a new process circuit within the existing buildings whilst maintaining production from the existing process equipment. After successful commissioning of the new plant the old equipment was subsequently decommissioned.

A number of successive de-bottlenecking exercises saw the plant capacity increased to 72ktpa by late 2006. GJC undertook all of the electrical and control design and managed the installation and commissioning exercises on each occasion.

A further expansion of the plant in 2008 saw another process stream installed to take the plant capacity to 100ktpa sodium bicarbonate. This expansion also took the process from being a batch pharmaceutical producer to a continuous producer through the installation of a microfiltration system. To meet the new production levels a significant expansion of the warehouse and packaging equipment was also undertaken. GJC designed and commissioned a control system that integrated existing packing equipment with new equipment through the use of clever logic and modern interfaces. The system allowed product to be packaged from two product silos at the same time making thereby doubling the packing production capacity.

A number of key GJC personnel were also responsible for the process and mechanical design of each of these upgrades and so retain an intimate knowledge of the process and equipment required for the production of high quality sodium bicarbonate.

Following the decision to close the soda ash facility, GJC undertook the electrical and control design of the plant that allowed the refined sodium bicarbonate plant to continue to operate. All plant was successfully installed and commissioned to meet the deadline that was set for closing of the soda ash plant. GJC Engineers now employs Craig Hutton  the process engineer who managed the mechanical equipment selection and process design for all of the above projects