TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
WSP’S INDUSTRIAL EXPERTS ARE PROVIDING TECHNICAL EXPERTISE ON SOME OF THEWORLD’S LARGEST FACILITIES AND IN ITS MOST EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS TO MAXIMISE EFFICIENCY, VALUEAND SUSTAINABILITY FOR THEIR CLIENTS.
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RÖNNSKÄR SMELTER, SKELLEFTEÅ, SWEDEN
WSP is helping an important client to increase the environmental benefits of one of Europe’s bigger copper smelters.
Boliden is one of Europe’s bigger copper and gold producers, and one of WSP’s most important clients in Sweden. In recent years, they have completed many successful projects together. As a consequence of the EU WEEE directive, under which 4kg of electronic waste (e-scrap) per person is to be collected, Boliden wanted to build a smelting plant at Rönnskär outside Skellefteå in northern Sweden to enable it to recycle far greater volumes of copper, silver and gold from electronic scrap. The smelting plant has a capacity of 75,000 tonnes e-scrap per year and will also channel excess heat produced into electricity or a district heating system for internal purposes and the community.
A 15-strong WSP team provided structural design including furnace support structure, and also geotechnical, health and safety, piping, mechanical and electrical design, all in 3D, and regulatory compliance over the two-year project. Because of the scale of investment involved in industrial construction, deadlines are often tight. “We are used to working to very strict timeframes to enable production to begin as quickly as possible,” says Anders Enquist,Department Manager, Construction Design at WSP. “The structural design was going on parallel to the process equipment design and the construction work.”’
The plant is an 11-storey building made of more than 1,200 tonnes of structural steel and concrete, 50m
high.The Kaldo plant has two brick-faced vessels, one in operation and one spare that will need to be changed and relined up to five times a year, so there is also an overhead crane installed in the plant with a capacity of 250 tonnes – a significant structure in its own right.
The speed of the project meant that the foundations had to be designed with the flexibility to support a structure that had not yet been finalised. “We started the load calculations before the final plant design was set, and the plant is also sitting on a peninsular out into the Gulf of Bothnia which presents great challenges for the foundation design. There are about 800 piles down to the bedrock to accommodate any load.”
QUICKFACTS
CLIENT Boliden PROJECT TEAM WSP office: Skellefteå, Sweden
SERVICES PROVIDED Structural, construction design, geotechnical, mechanical, electrical, piping, health and safety, quality assurance
STATUS Completion due in spring 2012
PROJECT SUMMARY 50m-high, 11-storey smelting plant requiring 1,200 tonnes of structural steel and 800 piles
KEY CHALLENGES In addition to an extremely tight schedule, the project required early-stage pile foundation
Boliden is a very important client for us, and we are proud that they come back to us for repeat projects. Copper smelting is a heavy industrial process, so it was very satisfying to create something that is environmentally friendly and that will benefit the community.
Anders Enquist, Department Manager, Construction Design, Sweden
75,000 TONNES
Annual recycling capacity for electronic scrap
www.wspgroup.com
INDUSTRY
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