Mipac’s innovative, cost-saving, continuous cell-monitoring system, CellView® is to be installed in a new electrowinning nickel plant in Canada.
The order from global engineering procurement, construct and manage (EPCM) consultants, Fluor Canada Ltd, is for voltage and temperature monitoring on 272 nickel electrowinning cells at Vale Newfoundland and Labrador’s Long Harbour nickel plant in Vancouver.
“This order is significant for Mipac in many ways,” Mipac Managing Director Eddie DeRivera says.
“It is our second major system order for CellView®; it is on a nickel refining application; it is from Fluor — a major EPCM provider — and the end user is Vale, one of the world’s leading mining and mineral processing companies.”
The Cellview® monitoring system will be installed in November this year.
“CellView® provides a key performance indicator for an entire electrowinning or electrorefining operation,” Eddie says.
“By detecting and / or predicting short circuits and monitoring the overall health of a cell, it realises the full potential of a refining or electrowinning operation.”
A wireless cell monitor is mounted on each electrowin/electrorefining cell. Each unit is enclosed in industrial-quality housing and contains voltage and (optional) temperature measurement circuitry, a radio transmitter, an RFID tag (for set-up and asset management) and a non-rechargeable long-life battery (up to 10 years, depending on cycles).
The monitor communicates via a robust, state-of-the-art mesh network optimised to work in harsh and noisy environments, and operate effectively in aggressive chemical settings.
Information is fed to a central operator interface which can be integrated into an existing system or can stand alone.
The monitor is programmed with a hand-set and offers: an HMI option for a complete, standalone system; an historian option; and an OPC interface is also available.
“CellView® helps our clients increase production, increase fault detection capabilities in cells, reduces maintenance requirements, minimise point cost and keep things simple,” Eddie says. “It also boosts operator safety and at the same time makes it possible to increase the quality and quantity of output using the same level of input.
“Continuous, real-time monitoring of cell performance is the first step towards improving tankhouse management.”
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