With Honeywell's fire protection systems the Toromocho Minera Chinalco project in Peru has reinforced plant safety, and met all local and international regulations and safety standards.
Benefits
With
Honeywell's fire protection systems the Toromocho Minera Chinalco project in Peru has reinforced plant safety, and met all local and international regulations and safety standards.
The system uses the best available technologies for fire detection, linear heat detection, fire and gas suppresion, and digital audio and mass notification, to protect the premises, people, and environment.
The system is fully integrated with management systems: A single panel and control center station provides supervision, operation, and control for all mining areas. This fully integrated approach has enabled the project to reduce operational risks and the total cost of ownership. Honeywell engineers worked closely with the customer to tailor the solution to Totomocho's requirements and accommodate changes to the schedule as they arose.
Background
Minera Chinalco Peru S.A. is a subsidiary of the Aluminum Coporation of China (CHINALCO), the second largest aluminum producer and the third most important source for primary aluminum worldwide. It maintains bauxite mining operations, as well as aluminum refining and smelting plants. it also has various copper, non-ferrous metals, and rare metals projects focused on the engineering and technology services industries.
Challenge
CHINALCO strives for excellence through innovation and competitive work. The Toromocho project had a promary goal of ensuring safety and upholding the plant's zero-accident policy.
It was vital for the project to meet all local, national, and internatioal fire protection regulations, as well as to protect the reputation of the mine, which boasts of strong enviromental credentials.
Besides these stringent requirements there was also the challenge of complex logistics, and extreme weather conditions.
Solution
Minera Chinalco chose Honeywell as its partner for the Toromocho project's fire protection system. The scope included design and engineering , calculations and documentation, supply, testing, installation, integration, and commisioning of all the necessary hardware and software for a comprehensive and smart integrated solution.
The project drew heavily on Honeywell's porfolio of equipment and solutions:
- 24 Honeywell XLS-140/2 fire alarm control panels, UL-Listed and NFPA 72 compliant
- Five Honeywell XLS-NCA2 network control annunciators for the fire premises operations, distributed accordingly
- One Honeywell XLS-DVC (Digital Voice Commander) and a Wheelen 6-Cells Mass Notification system for a strong and powerful evacuation system
- Manual valves, fire hose cabinets, deluge valves, foam mixers, and core components for monitoring water suppression systems into the fire system
- Monitoring of one IG-55 Inert Gas Extinguishing System and a Fike Fire Panel. This isolated system in the plant was integrated into the Honeywell fire system
- A complex cause/effect matrix was developed to provide automatic activation of nine water/foam deluge zones in the event of a fire condition. Additionally, Honeywell XLS140/2 fire alarm control panels provided relay output modules to stop critical machinery devices in case of emergency
- Conveyor detection included linear heat detection systems using fiver optic techniques. These linear heat detection systems are monitored with intelligent input modules connected to the XLS140/2 fire alarm control panels. Linear heat detecton provides a very early detection system for critical areas, such as conveyors.
Fire Systems were installed in every mine area: crushing, stockpile, grinding, copper flotation, molybdenum flotation, copper extraction and molybdenum extration, as well as areas for reagents, tailings, water pumping, water prcoessing, the main electrical substation, and in control rooms.
Honeywell also provided two of its powerful software solutions: the Experion Industrial Security Life Safety Manager application for monitoring, controlling and operation of the day-to-day activities of site operators and local fire fighter personnel; and honeywell's Industrial Security integrated facilities management applications suite. The suite provides a holistic overview of the enterprise from a single netowrked PC and includes tight integration with the business processes.
The installation included all necessary field devices, including detectors, notification devices, pull stations and I/O modeuls. Together it ensures a fully protected site, as well as a comprehensive management system for reproting and alarm management.