With the aim of facilitating and speeding up the loading and unloading of gas, through the mechanized handling of cylinder pallets for the Maipú Plant in Abastible, PA Engineering developed the engineering, in several disciplines, for the complete palletization of the production process of the Plant, which involved the installation of LPG cylinder palletizing equipment in the production lines of packaging of 5, 11 and 15Kg.

The project was carried out in two stages, given the need to clear certain areas before carrying out the project. The first phase corresponded to the construction of 5 double loading islands, the expansion of the pump room, transfer of equipment and new canopy structures for the islands, access gate to the plant and truck parking lots, with rainwater management.

The second stage corresponded to the assembly of the new projected palletizing equipment, the incorporation of leveling and new rainwater systems of the maneuvering yard, construction of pits and relocation of existing networks.

The Luz del Norte project is a solar photovoltaic (PV) power in 478 hectares of land, diversifying Chile’s energy portfolio.

The 141 megawatt (MW) alternating current project is powered by more than 1.7 million First Solar advanced thin-film PV modules, which produce enough solar energy to power 174,000 homes and displace the equivalent of more than 185,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Grouped into four subsectors or PVCS units, each of these four PVCS units was connected to the substation considered in the project through a 23 kV collector. This new substation collects the plant’s 162 MW and connects it to the nearest existing substation in the system.

The project considered basic and detailed engineering, supplies, construction of civil works, manufacture and assembly of geodesic dome-type metal structures to specify the coverage of the court, which has multiple characteristics such as being self-supporting, light and allows it to adapt to the geometry of the terrain. This particularity makes the construction fast and similar to a large puzzle that is assembled by technical teams throughout the coverage area, without the use of cranes.

Once the structure was completed, a base cover of ribbed metal sheets was laid, similar to those used in industrial buildings. The project covered an area of 45,000 m2.

Albemarle is developing the Capricorn project, or expansion of the La Negra III Plant, to increase the production capacity of its La Negra plant from its current capacity of 44,000 metric tons per year to 80,000 metric tons per year of lithium carbonate.

As part of this expansion, Pares&Alvarez first develops the detailed engineering of the soda ash transport system, whose objective is to take it from the new storage cellar to the ash wetting system. This also included an air transport system, designed by Noltec, with a layout of around 450 miters installed in the main piperack of the expansion project of the La Negra III plant.  During the project, the technical bases for the purchase of equipment were also made.  The system considered structures, pipes, equipment, and a water cooler.

In parallel, PA Engineering developed detailed engineering in all disciplines, with a strong field support component to the EISI EPC project, of the solvent extraction system to remove boron from the brine with lithium.

Finally, PA Engineering engineered install a salt chiller screw in the thermal evaporation plant for the generation of condensate directly for Albemarle.

La Negra Receives the concentrated brine from the Salar Plant and performs, first, a purification process and then a chemical conversion process. This plant was the first of its kind in Chile and began operations in 1984, when Plant I made the first production of Lithium Carbonate.

In May 2017, Albemarle inaugurated Plant II, the most modern in Latin America to produce battery grade lithium carbonate, a high value-added material essential for the energy storage market and the development of batteries for electric vehicles.

This new plant, which doubles the production capacity of The Black Chemical Plant, responds to the company’s expansion plan and the commitment to consolidate Chile as one of the major playersin the global lithium industry and, specifically, Antofagasta, as the epicenter of the technological revolution associated with lithium.

The new plant delivers a product of high quality and added value, according to the technical requirements of lithium battery manufacturers. For this, technological improvements were made including less use of energy and water, and an increase in the efficiency of the processing of the concentrated brine from the Salar Plant.

Plant III is currently being built, which will transform La Negra Chemical Plant into one of the largest lithium carbonate production complexes in the world by doubling the current production capacity, according to information obtained on the Albemarle website.

In 2008, PA Engineering was invited to participate in the development of the civil detail engineering, with the aim of designing the foundations required to support the 3 wind turbines that the wind farm will have. Then, the client requested the electrical detail engineering for the construction of the medium voltage line that connects the wind generators with the plant.

With the groundbreaking ceremony on December 11, 2009, this Bicentennial project began, which was inaugurated in October 2010 and involved a direct investment of US$ 5.3 million.

The wind farm included the construction of three wind turbines with a combined capacity of 2.55 MW, which supplied electricity to the Methanex facilities, from wind, and thus reduce CO2 emissions by 12,129 tonnes.

The project consisted of the replacement of the two 66/13.2 kV and 2.6 MVA transformers with a new 15 MVA equipment. It included the reuse of existing equipment, the extension of the 66 kV busbar, an extension of the 13.2 kV busbar in at least two positions for future feeders and the necessary civil works. It also included the necessary works for the Commissioning, such as adaptation of the protections, SCADA, civil works, assembly, earthing mesh, tests of the new equipment, and adaptations in the medium voltage yard, among others.

PA Engineering established the management team of this project through a management PMO to ensure its proper development. The work of the PMO that took charge of the project ranged from its basic and detailed engineering stage, obtaining building permits, environmental permits, supplies, construction and assembly, Commissioning and until the Entry into Operation of the new facility, which was achieved on August 25, 2022.

The coal power plant, with a gross rated power of 350 MW, uses pulverized bituminous coal as its main fuel. PA Engineering developed the detailed engineering in all disciplines for the seawater system of the new plant. This included the collection, treatment and impulsion to the plant and its return to the sea.

The seawater system, with a capacity of 50,000 m3/h, includes the water intake, siphon on the quay, pumping pit (14 x 45 x 18 m), seawater circuits to the plant and return circuits of 2 x 1,500 m in length for delivery at sea.

The project aimed to improve the Evaporators area of the Constitución plant, to improve its operational availability and achieve a stable generation of black liquor with 70% solids to be burned in the recovery boiler. The main equipment has been purchased from the supplier Valmet Brazil. The project considers a net evaporation rate of 325 tons/h of water and a solids concentration of 70% virgin for Black Liquor.

PA Engineering developed the basic and detail engineering for the improvement of the Instrumentation and Service Air System of Ventana 1 and Ventana 2. In addition, the engineering was done for a short-term solution in the use of water from ESVAL, for the replacement of the slag silo bucket elevator. 

Eléctrica Ventanas Company, a subsidiary of the AES Gener Group, operates the Nueva Ventanas thermoelectric, a plant that has an installed capacity of 272 MW that it injects into the Central Interconnected System (SIC). Nueva Ventanas has state-of-the-art technology to minimize its emissions into the atmosphere: semi-dry desulfurization (SDA) equipment for the reduction of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions; Bag Filter System that captures 99.9% of particulate matter (PM), and adjustable tangential carbon burners, which reduce the generation of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx).

During the last decades, environmental issues have become increasingly relevant, a situation that we have seen reflected in the creation and modification of laws and regulations related to environmental protection and prevention in matters such as pollution.
In this scenario, in 2013 Supreme Decree N°28 was enacted, a new Emission Regulation for Copper Smelters and Arsenic Emitting Sources, of the Ministry of Environment, which aims to reduce emissions of arsenic and sulphur, in addition to establishing continuous monitoring of sulphur dioxide in the main sources emitting these pollutants, thus protecting the health of people and the environment throughout the national territory. Under this new regulatory framework, Codelco begins a 5-year investment plan that will allow it to comply with the new emissions standard and reduce its annual emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by almost 100,000 tons and arsenic by around 1,300 tons.
PA Engineering proposed the upgrading of the Flash Furnace to increase its capacity from 825 ktpa to 1,170 ktpa. This involved detail, counterpart and on-site engineering, support in procurement process and start-up.

The result:
Five projects were executed at the Smelter in order to comply with regulations:

• Two new double absorption acid plants to increase gas capture, in order to comply with the sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentration in the chimney of 600 parts per million, executed by Codelco’s Project Vice-Presidency.
• The upgrade of the Flash furnace, which increased its capacity from 825 thousand tons per year to 1,170 thousand tons per year.
• The replacement of dryer 5 with dryer 6, which reduces the level of particulate matter and SO2 emissions in the concentrate drying process.
• The treatment of refinery gases, which allows us to process all the gases emitted from the chimneys of the refining furnaces, with the aim of reducing particulate matter emissions to values below 20% opacity.
• The Pierce Smith converter hoods were replaced to increase sulfur capture and comply with regulations regarding annual SO2 capture.
  During 2020, the Chuquicamata Smelter focused on consolidating its operations under the new environmental standards, following the implementation of the investment projects. In terms of results, according to Codelco’s 2020 Report, the smelter achieved a 97.2% capture of arsenic emissions and 97.7% of sulfur emissions, complying with the 95% required by the supreme decree.

PA Engineering provided the support of disciplinary engineers, with the purpose of fulfilling an owner engineer role, in order to ensure that the EPC contractor’s engineering met the quality and safety objectives required by the project. It was considered to verify the consistency of the project’s engineering, compliance with CAP regulations and standards. Additionally, construction management was carried out as a support in the relationship with the EPC contractor.

In 2005, the construction of the Spence Mining Company began and two years later it started production, consolidating itself over time as a relevant deposit in BHP’s investment portfolio.

In August 2017, BHP approved the Spence Growth Option (SGO) project, with an estimated investment of US$2.46 million, which was aligned with the mining company’s corporate strategy of having large, long-lived and low-cost operations.

With this, the site took a big step thanks to the construction of the SGO project, which allows Spence to project itself in the long term through the treatment of hypogene minerals through a concentrator plant, which operates in conjunction with the current FullSal mixed mineral leaching process.

Overall, the project comprised a new 95,000 tpd concentrator plant, extending the life of the Spence mine by more than 50 years, and the commissioning of the desalination plant.

The desalination plant, which considers the use of seawater for 100% of the mining process, uses reverse osmosis technology and has an approximate capacity of 1,000 l/s of water and required 154 km of water piping from the plant to the mine operation.

Pares&Alvarez developed basic and detailed engineering in instrumentation and control, electrical, civil-structural, mechanical and piping, among others, architectural design, 3D technology, procurement and on-site engineering.