Nickel-containing alloys are being used in two new flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) installations in Canada. One is the Syncrude Canada oil sands operation at Fort McMurray, Alberta, and the other is NB Power’s Coleson Cove oil-fired power generating station on the Bay of Fundy, near Saint John, New Brunswick. The new FGD plant for Syncrude will use N06059. The material retains high corrosion resistance to aggressive media such as hot sulphuric acid, even in the welded condition. The alloy, 700 tonnes in all, is supplied both as solid plate, in thicknesses from about 6 to 13 millimetres (mm), and as 1.5-to-3-mm hot-rolled cladding on carbon steel backing, by Thyssen Krupp VDM, Germany. The FGD plant is designed by Marsulex and will use the proprietary Marsulex process to produce ammonium sulphate fertiliser. Marsulex will operate the facility, under contract, for Syncrude. SNC Lavalin is the engineering contractor. The FGD plant is scheduled to start up in mid-2005. It is part of an upgrade and expansion that will increase oil production to 165 to 170 million barrels per year by 2008. It will reduce air emissions to 200 tonnes of sulphur dioxide per day, from the approved level of 245 tonnes per day.
