Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) is using a state-of-the-art ABB-distributed control system to improve the energy efficiency of its six gas turbines in power station 3.

The ABB system is helping the aluminium giant to save energy and reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions – a significant contributor to global warming, a statement said.

Alba is one of the world’s largest producers of aluminium and operates four stations producing 2,265 megawatts of smelting power. It recently upgraded two power stations in line with the kingdom’s initiatives to promote green technology.

The upgrade involved shifting to environmentally-friendly gas turbine technology at Alba power station 3 and Rifaa phase II.

Alba upgraded six of its single-silo combustor gas turbines to low-NOx gas turbines.

Low-NOx gas turbines are able to run at high engine efficiency while minimising emissions of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide from the engine. However, in order to reach their full potential these turbines require an efficient control system coupled with necessary electrical modifications. To this end, Alba selected ABB to design, install and commission a control system that would maximise the gains from their new green initiative.

“The control system designed by ABB is exactly what we were looking for,” said Amin Sultan, power, utilities maintenance and projects manager at Alba.

Key advantages of the ABB system include very low maintenance and inventory costs due to minimum number of modules; all modules are intelligent with self-diagnostics, he added.