From left to right: Krishnan Balan, Vivagen Govender, Vijalkumar Patel, Eric Owusu, Mario Banas, Johnny Hovland, Thomas Inglis, David Beach and Paul Andersen. The discharge arm can be seen connected in the background.
At approximately 7:30 am the vessel with 3,506 tons of pitch docked at Qatalum's own raw materials receiving berth '8' at the Mesaieed Port. Pitch is a coal tar based product required for the making of anodes which are in turn is used as the positive electrode in the electrolysis process of creating aluminium.
Prepared for its unloading were the Port & Utilities team and Carbon team. At 8:00am the discharge arm, in place at the dock, was connected to unload the pitch stored at 200°C aboard the vessel. "The safe unload today of Qatalum's first liquid pitch cargo is a great achievement, said Hassan Al Rashid, Deputy CEO.
The unloading process takes approximately 10-12 hours at a maximum flow rate of 400 – 600 tons and is pumped into one of the world's largest dedicated pitch facilities near the smelter, adjacent to the port. The heated tanks store the pitch at 200°C ready for use in the production of anodes.
David Beach, Carbon Technical Performance Manager added, "It has involved close cooperation between Qatalum Operational & Maintenance teams, Qatalum Project teams & our suppliers. The completion of our first unloading has been a true team effort and represents the culmination of months of planning & preparation drills."
The day marked another of Qatalum's important key achievements and furthers the transition from Project execution into Qatalum Operations. CEO, Jan Arve Haugan acknowledged this by adding; "I'm glad that this is another proof of a focussed cooperation by our teams."
