American firm awarded acid plant contract

An American engineering firm has been awarded a $55-million contract to design and supply Vale's new sulfuric acid plant in Sudbury.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., which is headquartered in Pasadena, California, will design the complete sulfuric acid plant contact section, as well as supply all of the equipment and some materials.

The plant features Jacobs' proprietary Chemetics equipment throughout, including a stainless steel converter (with internal exchanger), radial flow gas-gas exchangers, acid coolers and SARAMET distributors and piping, according to a press release from the company.

The bulk of the proprietary equipment is expected to be fabricated at Jacobs' facility in Pickering, Ont.

The new acid plant is part of Vale's Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction (AER) Project. The overall Clean AER Project is designed to cut sulfur dioxide emissions at the Sudbury site by more than 70 per cent from current levels.

"We are very pleased that Vale has selected our technology for this important project, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Vale," Jacobs Group vice-president, Andy Kremer, said, in the press release.

This is the second major project for Jacobs at the site. It was awarded a contract to modernize the existing acid plant in 2002.

In addition, it has had numerous orders for proprietary equipment since the original acid plant was built in the 1990s.

Posted by Arron Pickard