The aluminum rolling division of ElvalHalcor S.A., Elval, has commissioned SMS group to supply the Viridis Energy & Sustainability Suite for the aluminum flat rolling mill at the Oinofyta site, Greece. This milestone represents an important step forward in optimizing Elval’s sustainability initiatives and energy management potential.
ElvalHalcor is one of the leading manufacturers of flat-rolled aluminum in the world. With an annual capacity of 450,000 tons, the project makes a significant contribution to the company’s goal of reducing CO2 emissions and optimizing the entire production process.
Sustainability as a shared vision
The partnership between SMS and Elval exemplifies the shared vision of sustainable and responsible practices in the industry. With the installation of two modules of the Viridis Energy and Sustainability Suite – Viridis Performance and Viridis Grids – Elval is equipped to meet the ever-increasing demands for responsible and energy-efficient management in the aluminum industry.
Viridis Performance enables modeling of energy and media consumption by taking into account contextual factors such as raw material and product properties, production levels and quality standards. The software provides an accurate understanding of the impact of different production routes, real-time monitoring of consumption deviations, automatic event generation and an online logbook for data collection. Checklists with standard operating procedures and countermeasures ensure immediate corrective action, and precise quantification of deviations helps improve performance. Automated machine learning (Auto ML) resources automatically calculate targets while maintaining relevance as production conditions change. Over 70 tangible assets such as melting furnaces, preheating furnaces, hot and cold rolling mills are recorded.
Digital resources
Viridis Grids helps Elval accurately and autonomously calculate forecast energy consumption based on the production schedule using automated machine learning resources. Leakage detection is made possible by online mass balancing of the measuring devices. Online electricity demand is calculated based on measurements and online production.
Dr. Thiago Turchetti Maia, CEO of SMS digital, said: “We are pleased to supply our Viridis Suite to Elval, a forward-thinking company committed to protecting the environment. This collaboration reflects our commitment to providing innovative solutions that help our customers reduce their environmental impact while improving their operational efficiency.”
Instead of deciding in advance on a fixed framework for the entire project (as with traditional waterfall projects), this project follows an agile methodology that allows SMS and Elval’s operations team to create an inventory of jobs to be completed and follow the execution with them Prioritize progress of implementation. In this way, the project is much more flexible and adds value more quickly.
Drakotos Athanasios, Deputy Head of Electrical and Electronics Maintenance at Elval, said: “Our partnership with SMS group is an important step on our path to sustainability. The Viridis Energy & Sustainability Suite fits perfectly with our commitment to sustainable aluminum production and reducing our energy and environmental footprint. We are confident that this investment will have a positive impact on our business and support our carbon footprint reduction journey.”