BAYER PROCESS CONTROL AT ALCAN VAUDREUIL WORKS

Valérie Ouellet, Simon Bergeron, Donald Verville

Alcan Vaudreuil Works, Saguenay, Quebec,Canada

Abstract: Alcan Vaudreuil Works is the only alumina plant in Canada. The plant
produces about 1.4 milion tons of alumina per year, using the Bayer process to treat
bauxite ore. In addition to regulatory control, this complex extraction process involves
many applications of advanced process control. Techniques such as adaptative control,
multivariable control (model based predictive control), fuzzy logic, on-line models and
expert systems are used. This paper will first introduce the Bayer process and present the
different types of control commonly used. Three examples of closed loop advanced
process control applications will be presented. Copyright © 2007 IFAC

Keywords: Control applications, on-line control, multivariable control, closed-loop, rule-

based systems

1. INTRODUCTION- THE BAYER PROCESS hydrate is calcined at high temperature to produce

smelter grade alumina. In all steps of alumina
production, heat is recovered using different heat
Alcan Vaudreuil works is the only alumina plant in exchange units.
Canada which produce about 1.4 million tons of
alumina using the Bayer process to treat bauxite ore In addition to regulatory control, this complex
first developped by the Austrian scientist, Karl Bayer extraction process involves many applications of
(Bayer 1888). This hydrometallurgical process is advanced process control. Techniques such as
complex and involves five major steps: grinding and adaptative control, multivariable control (model based
pre-treatment of bauxite ore, pressure digestion, predictive control), fuzzy logic, on-line models and
liquid/solids separation, precipitation of hydrate and expert systems are used. Every level of the process
calcination. In the first step, bauxite ore which is control hierarchy is well equipped with state of the art
imported from foreign countries, is crushed and hardware (instrumentation, DCS, PLC, HMI and
grinded. In the second step, bauxite is pressure servers) and software (DCS, PI, LIMS, MBPC, expert
digested in caustic liquor according to the following system).
reaction:

2NaOH + Al2O3 ⇔ Na2O.Al2O3 + 4H2O (1)

2. UTILIZATION OF ADVANCED PROCESS
Bauxite also contains impurities which create an CONTROL TECHNIQUES IN THE BAYER
insoluble residue known as red mud. This residue is PROCESS
separated from the pregnant caustic solution
containing alumina in the liquid/solids separation step
which includes decantation and filtration. The red Advanced process control techniques are used in all
mud reports to the mud washing circuit and the the area of Vaudreuil Bayer plants such as: pre-
pregnant solution is sent to the precipitation area. In treatment of the bauxite, digestion, heat exchange,
this step, alumina is precipitated as hydrate and mud washing circuit and precipitation.
separated from impurities like iron also present in the
pregnant solution. In the final step, aluminium
2.1 Pre-treatment of the Bauxite Ore 3. CLOSED LOOP ADVANCED PROCESS
CONTROL APPLICATIONS
Two advanced controls are used in this area: bauxite
slurry density control and liquor balance control
between ore plants and mills. Both applications are 3.1 Bauxite Charge Control
programmed in PI with Performance Equations.
The objective of this control is to minimize the
variations of the alumina to caustic (A/C) ratio of the
2.2 Digestion liquor leaving the digestion units. Lower variations
permit higher target and therefore production. This
This area includes only one advanced control control was computerized at the beginning of the 70's.
application but the most important one: the bauxite Its actual version (Figure 1) is composed of 3 main
charge control. This control loop has a significant elements (Lalancette and Moore, 2003):
impact on process yield and plant capacity. This
strategy is described in section 3.1 1- Feed forward control with process model and
soft-sensors;
2- Feed back control with adaptive gain by lab
2.3 Heat Exchange analysis or soft sensor;
3- Optimal set point estimator.
This area, which has a significant impact on process
energy consumption uses few advanced control All this logic is programmed in PI with performance
strategies like Adaptative control, On-line diagnosis equations except for the final dosage input to the
and Model Based Predictive Control (MBPC). An bauxite slurry flow which is calculated by the DCS.
example of MBPC is detailled in section 3.2.
AUTOMATIC
A/C RATIO
TARGET
CONDUCTIVITY

2.4 Mud-washing Circuit MANUAL A/C RATIO TARGET

DENSITY

INFRARED
SIGNAL
LAB. ANALYSIS SOFT SENSORS
PROCESS
In this plant area, the red mud residue is washed prior MANUAL INPUTS MODEL NaOH
A/C Ratio
DISTURBANCES
to disposal in a multi-stage counter current circuit . FEEDFORW ARD
SolidS

Settling additives are used in all the washnig stages. - e +

PID
Optimization of washing efficiency and additive + +
FEEDBACK
PROCESS A/C Ratio

consumption are achieved through a global advanced SLURRY

DENSITY
PLANT

control application which performs multivariable

FLOW

control, constraint monitoring and expert advising. BAUXITE

CHARGE
DOSAGE BAUXITE SLURRY
FLOW TARGET

This strategy is described in section 3.3.

CONDUCTIVITY

MODEL
(NaOH & A/C ratio) LAB

SOFT SENSOR

2.5 Precipitation

Precipitation is the most complex area of the plant Fig. 1. Bauxite Charge Control
and the most advanced one in process control
application. Two reasons motivated the rapid
development of process control in this area. First, 3.2 Vacuum Heat Exchange Optimization
precipitation process is chemically complex. Second,
the Vaudreuil plant is relatively old (about 70 years This process is one of the two major heat recovery
old) and uses a batch process which requires a lot of systems in the Vaudreuil plant Bayer process. The
manual operations. Many advanced control purpose of the vacuum heat exchange network is to
techniques are used in this area such as: recover energy from a hot stream (pregnant liquor) by
transferring it to a cold stream (spent liquor). Figure
- Batch operation scheduling and management; 2 shows a simplified graphical representation of the
- Virtual sensors; heat exchange network system. A particular feature
- Volume monitoring and control; of this area is the use of 3 parallel lines of heat
- Constraints monitoring and production set point; exchangers fed by a common liquor cold feed divided
- Multivariable control; in two surge tanks and collected in 2 heated stream
- On-line mass balances; surge tanks. Similarly, the heat supplying streams are
- Discreet control; fed by liquor coming from a common surge tank and
- On-line diagnosis; the cooled steams are collected in 3 surge tanks.
- Model-based control;
- Sequence control.
 HEAT EXCHANGE
NETWORK
F T
CONTROLLED
VARIABLES
MANIPULATED
volume control algorithm, based on wash flow rate,
Hot
10
11
VARIABLES
COOLIN L
has to be respected.
supply
stream
12
G TANK
tank L #1
TC T F MUD CIRCUIT FLOC FLOC
DEBIT
E E E USINE
X X X COLD
C C C STREA
Heate L
H H H SUPPL
M L Decanters
strea
d T
YANK U/F
collectin
m
#1
gtank T F T Drain
#1 EB2
EB1
16 COOLIN
G TANK L
17
18 ON ON
#2

F Filtration area
TC T E E E
X X X 7
C C C
H H H
Water
F T

24
COOLIN FLOC
FLOC FLOC
23
22
G TANK L
Heate #3 Washing
L Water
strea
d
collectin
m TC T F
COLD
gtank E E E
T STREA
#2 X X X L
C C C SUPPL
M
T
YANK EB3 CLARTE
EB4
H H H 25% EB5
#2 water
ON disposal

Fig. 2. Vacuum Heat Exchange System ON ON

Water

As shown in Figure 3, this area has numerous

objectives and constraints that have to be achieved.
However, some of these objectives are conflicting. Fig. 4. Mud Circuit

Problems encountered in this area are numerous and

HEAT
RECOVER Y
AVOID
CONDENSATE
CONTROL
TEMPERATURE
various:
OPTIMIZATION CONTAMINATION
EXIT
FLASH TANKS
SUPPLY THE
SPENT LIQUOR - Need to adapt the control strategy depending upon
equipment condition (probes, tank, rake etc.);
TO THE
DIGESTION MINIMIZE
PROCESS HEAT W ASTED
TO CONTROL
TEMPERATURE - Difficulty to establish and maintain a control
PREVENT
EXCESSIVE
TEMPERATURE AT
3 FILTRATE FLOW S
3 SPENT LIQ FLOW S
strategy;
THE TEST TANK
3 VACUUM BREAKER

LIMITATION
- Long delays and reaction time of the circuit;
ON FILTRATE
FLOW S - Frequent operator changes;
LIMITATION
ON SPENT
- Interaction between stages;
LIQUOR
FLOW S
PROCESS BALANCE
ACCOUNT
FOR W ASH
- Mud surges, muddy O/F;
THE FLOW
COMING FROM
THE VOLUME
BETW EEN THE
3 FILLING
W ATER
TRANSFERT
- Instability in the amount of mud leaving the circuit;
THE FILTRATION
PROCESS TANKS
TO FILTRATE
- Unoptimized additive dosages;
Fig. 3. Control Objectives and Constraints -Difficulties to diagnose equipment break down
(tanks, probes, rake, etc.).

The selected technique for this system is a Model It was found that the control technique that best
Based Predictive Control algorithm, commonly called addresses these problems is the Rule Based Control
MPC or MBPC. One of the commercial package (RBC) algorithm which is mainly based on human
available on the market is used for the core of this reasoning. This system relies on a set of rules that
application. It is also supported by custom logic and define problems, causes and actions.
on-line model. The described application has 14
control variables, 9 manipulated variables and 2 The rules are based on combinations of conditions
feedforward variables. looking at variables absolute level and trending. It is
composed of approximately 100 rules for each washer
(thickener).
3.3 Mud-washnig Circuit Optimization
In order to keep the reasoning free of numbers, all
As described in section 2.4, mud is washed in a input variables are converted into fuzzy evaluation
counter-current washing circuit involving five using fuzzy sets. These sets define what is very low,
thickeners equipped with mud level detectors and low, normal, high or very high using instantaneous
clarity probes. Rake torque, underflow rate and values and averages. It also includes slopes that
settling additive flow rate are also measured. define if trending goes up and down slowly, normally,
rapidly or if it is stable. Similarly, manipulated
The major objectives of the system are to maximize variables are generated in fuzzy evaluation and then
the recovery of the process chemicals, to minimize transformed into numbers through fuzzy sets.
the additive consumption and to stabilize the mud
flow leaving the area. At the same time, two In the design of this type of application, the
conditions also have to be met: all the mud generated determination of delays before repeating actions and
by the digestion step has to be processed and the plant the priority between problems are important. These
are key aspects of the design to consider in order to
avoid over-reacting on manipulated variables.

Finally, the system can inform the operator of each

action taken and also warn him if abnormal
conditions are detected.

4. CONCLUSION

The Vaudreuil Plant Bayer Process is complex and

many parameters have to be controlled in order to
obtain good plant performance. At Vaudreuil works,
many advanced process control techniques are used.
These are necessary in the context of higher
production requirements to maximize the capacity of
the plant while minimizing the operator’s dependency
on the process.

REFERENCES

Bayer, K., (1888). The process of obtaining alumina.

United States patent application. 382505. 1888-
05-08

Lalancette, A., Moore, J., (2003) Digester Ratio

control, 20th Vaudreuil Works Technical Review