CAQA Hydra Chemical and Refining
CAQA Hydra Chemical and Refining manufactures and distributes process chemicals for the mining, water treatment and industrial markets of Western Australia. The Kwinana plant produces ferric sulfate and ferric chloride coagulants in batch reactors, dilutes and blends caustic soda and acid grades, and runs a solvent recovery unit that distils used industrial solvents into refined grades for resale. The Kwinana Beach terminal stores bulk caustic, acid, solvents and diesel in tank farms and loads road tankers and isotainers for customers from Perth to the Pilbara. The Karratha depot blends and distributes water treatment chemicals to mine sites and remote communities.
The business is organised into six departments. Process Operations runs the Kwinana plant continuously on a four-panel, twelve-hour shift roster with a central control room and outside operators covering the reactor building, the solvent recovery column and the utilities area. The Bulk Liquids Terminal operates on day and afternoon shifts with a night gauging round. Maintenance and Asset Integrity, Process Safety and Emergency Response, the Laboratory and Product Quality team and Technical Services and Environment work day shifts with on-call cover. The Kwinana plant is a licensed major hazard facility and operates under an accepted safety case.
Process safety is the foundation of how Hydra works. Every hazardous task is controlled by a permit to work and a tested isolation, every change to plant, chemicals or procedures goes through management of change, and safety critical equipment is tested to a schedule that the safety case commits to. Dangerous goods are stored and handled to the licence conditions and the relevant Australian Standards. Environmental discharges, air emissions and waste are monitored under the site environmental licence. Every incident, near miss, alarm flood and process upset is recorded and investigated, and the site leadership team reviews process safety performance indicators every month.