Rejlers delivers fast-track design for Keliber lithium refinery’s effluent treatment plant

Customer reference

Sibanye-Stillwater’s Keliber lithium refinery will start production at the end of 2025 in Kokkola, Central Ostrobothnia. Rejlers was responsible for the basic design and detail engineering of the refinery’s effluent treatment plant. The project was completed to a high standard and within a very short timeframe.

Reference

Summary

  • Facts

    The Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) of the lithium refinery is 150 metres long and houses approximately 300 pieces of process equipment and 850 pipelines. The plant integrates various processes under one roof.

  • What we did

    Rejlers was responsible for the basic design and detail engineering of the plant, including procurement coordination and a variety of other tasks. The scope of the design work included the building frame and internal steel structures; the sizing of tanks and pumps; the process, pipeline, electrical and instrumentation design; and part of the automation design.

  • Highlights

    The effluent treatment plant was designed to a high standard and within a short timeframe. The design solutions also contributed to achieving the cost savings required by a tight budget.

Starting in 2026, the lithium refinery will produce lithium hydroxide from ore sourced from the Keliber project’s proprietary reserves. Lithium is used for storing electrical energy, for example in electric car batteries. The process water from the refinery’s main process will be treated in the new effluent treatment plant, designed by Rejlers based on input from the technology supplier.

The feasibility evaluation phase (FEL-2) of the plant started in September 2023, and the basic design was completed during the same autumn. The building permit was approved and construction started in January 2024. Detailed engineering was also started at this time and completed in October 2024.

The aim was to design a functional effluent treatment plant within a short timeframe and a tight budget. Rejlers handled the job in an exemplary manner, sparing no effort to keep the project on schedule. Right from the start, the team genuinely paid attention to our budgetary challenges and sought to achieve all possible savings through the design solutions

Antti Mäki Project Manager | Sibanye-Stillwater

A step ahead in risk identification


Excellent overall management was a key factor in ensuring the project’s success. The project kept one step ahead by keeping an eye on the future at all times.
“We identified future risks and responded to them already during the design phase. We could have hit the rocks a number of times, but Rejlers never left us adrift. Rejlers has been a reliable partner, and together we managed to navigate past the obstacles”, says Mäki.
For the basic design, the Rejlers team utilised the initial data provided by Metso and refined it further.
“We added value to the project by challenging solutions and initial plans. We sized the equipment and utility systems to fit the process”, says Jussi Parikka, the Senior Project Manager responsible for the project at Rejlers.
“Rejlers’ role was of additional importance in the sense that the organisation on the client side of the project was very lightly staffed”, Mäki points out.
Rejlers provided a wide range of support to the client on the project, including involvement in procurement, technical evaluations and scheduling. In addition, Rejlers staffed the site in Kokkola with a field engineering team, enabling quick and independent problem-solving. This was another factor that contributed to swift project execution.

A rewarding and educational project


The project was rewarding and educational for both parties. New know-how was acquired as issues were solved jointly. Ideas for future projects were brought up even in the final meeting. Cooperation between the design teams was also very smooth from start to finish.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely choose Rejlers as the engineering consultant. Cooperation with the entire Rejlers team has been magnificent, and I have nothing but good things to say about them”, Mäki concludes.

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