UC RUSAL, a leading global aluminium producer, has completed engineering works and the preparation of a testing site for the world’s most powerful RA-550 reduction cell. The first cell is expected to be commissioned in the third quarter 2016. The purpose of developing the RA-550 cell is to achieve breakthrough levels of technical and economic performance in aluminium smelting. According to estimates, the new cell will have a 50-80% higher productivity compared to the older RA-300 and RA-400 cell designs, reaching over 4 t/d of metal. Also, the new technical solutions to evacuate pot gases will improve the pot sealing coefficient, enabling better environmental efficiency compared to older designs.
RA-550 design was started as a project by RUSAL’s Engineering and Technology Centre in 2007. Today a pilot potroom at the Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter is assembling engineering structures and busbars in a test production area, a substation has been built, and booster units have been installed. Fabrication of pot components has been launched, too.
“RA-550 is a reduction cell with a breakthrough design for future smelters and upgrade projects at RUSAL’s existing smelting capacities. Alongside the technical and process standards, it is a compulsory requirement for any modern production facility to comply with health and safety standards and to minimize hazardous emissions into the atmosphere. So all technological processes involving RA-550 cells are supported by the most advanced process control systems,” says Viktor Mann, RUSAL’s Technical Director. “Back in the days it was SAZ that tested the RA-300 technology and brought RA-300 cells, which were later installed at the Khakass and Boguchansky aluminium smelters, into full scale industrial production. For many years the company has been investing in the development of proprietary technology – no further development or retention of competitive advantages is possible without it. Moreover, with new technology at hand we can enter external technological design markets, too.”
RUSAL has also become the first Russian company to join the UN IMPACT 2030 network. IMPACT 2030 is aimed to help deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a set of ambitious targets to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and address climate change. It was initiated by a private sector led global collaboration supporting the UN Resolution adopted by the 66th General Assembly. The resolution welcomes the broader involvement of the private sector to support volunteerism, and encourages further engagement through the expansion of corporate volunteering and employee volunteer activities.
IMPACT 2030 is supported by a global private sector in collaboration with the United Nations, civil society, academia and other stakeholders. The mission of IMPACT 2030 is to exchange knowledge, coordinate, develop and extend up to date tools of employee involvement into corporate volunteering.
Since 2002 RUSAL has been a member of the UN Global Compact and has regularly developed, implemented and reported on Global Compact’s 10 principals of corporate sustainability. Since 2015 RUSAL has been represented in the UN Global Compact Russian Network.
Since 2010 RUSAL has been implementing social programs aimed at developing the culture of charity, volunteering, social partnership between governments, businesses and local communities in the regions of operation. Particular attention has been paid to the development of volunteering, for example Believe in Miracles, Create Miracles, the large-scale Christmas and New Year charity volunteering quest run since 2011 in the framework of RUSAL’s Helping is Easy social program, and www.pomogat-prosto.ru web-portal (Russian) launched in 2014 to unite socially oriented NGOs and volunteers.
In 2015 RUSAL contributed to establishing the Russian National Council of Corporate Volunteering, uniting more than 20 Russian companies and organisations.
“The exchange of best practices and experiences within the global business community will create new corporate volunteering opportunities in Russia. IMPACT 2030 aligns companies, their employees and volunteers to meet today’s global challenges. Concurrently, it will help each company that joins the network to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals and also create more corporate volunteers in the process”, comments Vera Kurochkina, Director for Corporate Communications, UC RUSAL.