Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the world’s largest aluminium smelters, marked a new milestone in its Power Station 5 (PS5) Block 4 Project with the recent arrival of Mitsubishi Power’s M701JAC Gas Turbine (GT). 

 

The M701JAC GT is a first-of-its-kind gas turbine manufactured in the world for a primary aluminium smelter and installed in the Kingdom of Bahrain. 

 

The JAC GT, an air-cooled version of the J-series GT and Steam Turbine, has a combined cycle output of 680.9 MW and reduces CO2 emissions when compared to conventional coal fired boilers and turbines worldwide.

 

A special gathering was held at the Block 4 Project site today (October 24) to mark the milestone, which was attended by Alba’s CEO Ali Al Baqali, Chief Power Officer Amin Sultan and other top officials from Alba Management, in addition to Takashi Tozawa, Senior Fellow, Senior General Manager, GTCC Business Division of Energy Systems, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Javier Cavada, President and CEO for EMEA region at Mitsubishi Power, Khalid Salem, President, Mena, Mitsubishi Power, Kong Lingfeng Vice President of SepcoIII in addition to officials from Irish group ESBI, the engineering, construction and management (ECM) consultant on the project.

 

Commenting on the occasion, Al Baqali said: "We are pleased to see the gas turbine at Alba’s project site as that will bring us one step closer to boost our operational efficiency while accelerate our ESG transformation in line with the Kingdom’s objectives of Net Zero Emissions by 2060."

 

"The state-of-the-art JAC GT will enable Alba to reduce its GHG emissions and deliver clean energy. This GT will support our vision once fully commissioned to be a sustainable and responsible aluminium producer. I thank our partners Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and SepcoIII for their support to progress with this project’s milestones safely and on time. I also want to thank our Project team for achieving to date around 1.5 million safe working hours without LTI," he stated.

 

Tozawa said the event marks an important milestone in Mitsubishi's growing partnership with Alba, with the on-schedule progress and arrival of the JAC gas turbine to Alba’s new combined cycle gas turbine Block 4 in Power Station 5. 

 

"This project reflects Mitsubishi Power’s ongoing commitment to deliver our state-of-the-art and hydrogen-ready gas turbine technologies and services to support Alba and our partners in Bahrain in meeting their power and decarbonization goals, which are aligned with the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030 for sustainable development," he added.

  

Lingfeng pointed out that SepcoIII was committed to support Bahrain's energy goals and meet Alba's expectations through the timely installation of the gas turbine and generator. 

 

"We aim to provide Chinese expertise to boost Alba’s production capacity while delivering this Project within the schedule," he added.