PT Trimegah Bangun Persada Tbk (NCKL) or Harita Nickel
continues to strive for effective and efficient use of energy in the company's
nickel processing process.
Head of Technical Support Harita Nickel Rico Windy Albert
said, one example of optimal energy use in the company's production facilities
has been implemented at one of the nickel smelters operated by a
subsidiary entity, namely PT Halmahera Jaya Feronikel (HJF).
Meanwhile, the smelter processes high grade nickel
ore or saprolite into ferronickel using a pyrometallurgical processing system
called Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (RKEF).
Rico said, to support the operation of the smelter facility,
the company has 4 steam power generator units, each of which produces 150
megawatts of electricity or a total of 600 megawatts.
"The power produced from this PLTU uses coal
gasification, so the combustion is cleaner," said Rico when met by the EV
Exploration Team in Kawasi, Obi Island, North Maluku.
He said that the effective use of energy in the production
process was carried out by implementing a heat recovery system at each stage of
ferronickel production. He said that the heat recovery system
was implemented so that all the power produced in coal gasification at the PLTU
could be used effectively.
He explained that the excess heat energy produced during the
process of smelting nickel ore in an electric furnace would be utilized in the
previous production stage, namely calcination in a rotary kiln.
Then, the excess heat energy in the calcination process will
also be used in the previous stage of ferronickel production, namely drying
nickel ore.
Apart from that, the HJF smelter also has a water management
system that can be reused in the manufacturing process.
"We have a holding pond to deposit rainwater and used
nickel processing water, we pump it so it can be used by the smelter, so it
doesn't go to waste," said Rico.
Separately, Environmental Superintendent Harita Nickel Indra
Maizar said that the company has a special water management system for use in
nickel production activities. Indra said that Harita Nickel has two
special ponds which function to collect rainwater and water used by production
activities from the smelter.
He said that rainwater that had been collected in the pond
was pumped to the company's smelter facility to be used in the production
process. The waste water used from production is then channeled back into
a different pond for storage.
"The water will later be pumped to the smelter to be used again in the nickel processing process," said Indra.
Image source: JIBI/Bisnis/Fanny Kusumawardhani
Source: www.ekonomi.bisnis.com/Jelajah EV: Harita Nickel Tingkatkan Efisiensi Energi dalam Proses Produksi
