Jacobs Engineering Group has received a contract from Vale Canada Ltd. to design and supply a new sulfuric acid plant for its Sudbury smelter in Ontario, Canada. The acid plant contract, with an estimated value of $55 million, includes the design of the complete sulfuric acid plant contact section, as well as supply of all equipment and some materials.
The plant features Jacobs’ proprietary Chemetics equipment throughout, including stainless steel converter (with internal exchanger), radial flow gas-gas exchangers, acid coolers and SARAMET distributors and piping. The bulk of the proprietary equipment is expected to be fabricated at Jacobs’ facility in Pickering, Ontario.
The new acid plant is part of Vale’s Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction (AER) Project. The overall AER Project is designed to cut sulfur dioxide emissions at the Sudbury site by more than 70% from current levels. Vale considers the Clean AER Project to be the most significant environmental investment ever contemplated in the Sudbury Basin.
“We are very pleased that Vale has selected our technology for this important project, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Vale,” said Jacobs Group Vice President Andy Kremer.
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.
