CPPE Press Release

08th March 2019

CPPE Completes Two SULFACID® Plants For CODELCO’s El Teniente Site In Chile, The World’s Largest Underground Copper Mine

  • El Teniente’s SULFACID® technology is the first of its kind in South America
  • SULFACID® guarantees the cleanest and most environmentally friendly copper production with nearly 100% SO2 removal efficiency
  • CPPE ensured that the construction of two SULFACID® plants was completed on schedule to meet Chile’s tougher emission standards
  • Equipped with the latest technology, CODELCO El Teniente is on the way to becoming one of the most efficient copper mines

Carbon Process and Plant Engineering SA (CPPE), based in Luxembourg-Dommeldange, has announced today that it has successfully completed the construction of two SULFACID® Desulphurization Plants for Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (CODELCO) at the El Teniente site – the world’s largest underground copper mine.

CPPE'S DESIGN CONCEPT CPPE'S DESIGN CONCEPT
FINAL BUILT SULFACID® PLANTS FINAL BUILT SULFACID® PLANTS

CPPE was awarded the multimillion EURO contract “Sistema de Emisiones Planta Limpieza de Gases Fundición Caletones” in 2016, to meet compliance with the tougher emission rules in Chile according to “Decreto 28”, which came into force in mid-December of 2018. The two SULFACID® plants – SRE 1 and SRE 2 – became operational on December 9th and 12th, respectively, while final construction works were completed by the beginning of March 2019.

The SULFACID® installation at El Teniente is a highly advanced pollution control technology designed to significantly reduce SO2 emissions to the atmosphere. CPPE’s CEO Dr. Alain Strickroth emphasised that the SULFACID® process has been especially developed to meet the dual objectives of SO2 removal from waste gases generated by chemical and metallurgical processes and transformation into industrial grade sulfuric acid. “CODELCO’s investment already bears two different kinds of fruit” he said “first, cleaner air for the inhabitants of the greater Santiago area and second, sulfuric acid, which CODELCO uses for many of its own processes. This is a real positive return on investment.”

The SULFACID® technology transforms sulfur dioxide, a gaseous air pollutant, into sulphuric acid. The main source of sulfur dioxide at El Teniente is from the smelting and refining of copper, due to natural sulphur content of the mined copper ore. Reducing the atmospheric SO2 at El Teniente has positive impacts on both environment and human health, as SO2 is known to form acid rain, which is detrimental to the natural environment, and causes respiratory problems in humans.

Thanks to the application of SULFACID®, the sulfur dioxide emissions of CODELCO’s El Teniente installations are being cut by around 44,000 tonnes annually.


About CPPE: Carbon Process & Plant Engineering S.A. (CPPE) with headquarters in Luxembourg, has taken over the flue gas cleaning engineering activities from Donau Carbon GmbH, former Lurgi Aktivkohle GmbH. CPPE is a specialist technology provider of flue gas cleaning processes (consulting, engineering, erection as well as turn-key plants) for the removal of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxides as well as elimination of mercury and dioxin/furan, CPPE is engineering several flue gas cleaning processes amongst them the Kombisorbon® and Sulfacid® process. CPPE’s flue gas cleaning processes are already in use at major companies all around the world.

About CODELCO: Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (CODELCO) with headquarters in Santiago is a Chilean state owned copper mining company, currently the largest copper producing company in the world. CODELCO’s commercial products go to clients around the world, and the company’s overseas sales typically account for 15% of Chile’s total exports, with Asia as CODELCO’s principal market, followed by Europe and South America.