" caused surprise and some initial fright among the staff"

Planning for weather events is sometimes overlooked. Here is a recent story where all the planning and preparation worked when it needed to.

 

The strike of lightning at dawn on Monday on the (company name omitted) alumina plant, located in the municipality of (name omitted), forced the refinery to stop production for a few hours. The situation was as circumstantial as it was unusual, as even veteran workers could not recall a similar incident, although it was quickly resolved.

 

The event occurred around 5:30 a.m., when the systems that govern the activity became unbalanced, and around 9:00 a.m. the alumina plant had returned to normal, without causing damage to the machinery. The foundry area of ​​the aluminum factory was not affected by the lightning.

 

The storm caused the shutdown of the three units of the steam department , which is essential for production at the plant, since the entire production system to obtain alumina from bauxite depends on this gas.

Bauxite is first crushed in the digestion department, which relies on steam to increase its pressure and complete the crushing. Once this process has been carried out, the raw material is heated and diluted with caustic soda. Hence, the plant stopped, as one of the first and essential steps in the production chain was disabled. In addition, if the situation continued over time, the excess current produced by the storm could have compromised the integrity of the equipment.

 

The interruption caused surprise and some initial fright among the staff, although the lightning rod system worked correctly and there was no damage to the machines or any risk to the operators.

 

On our travels when we visit plants we will talk about extreme weather events and how our host plans for them. We will bring this story up when we talk about lightening.

We would be remiss if we did not state that we are so happy to write about an incident that resulted in no injuries.

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