MOSCOW (MRC) -- The FCC plant of the Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein (MiRO) in Germany received a new FCC reactor head as part of a major scheduled turnaround, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
During the preparatory phase of the turnaround, Mammoet already unloaded this new reactor head at port and transported it by SPMT to the pre-assembly area in the refinery. There, the heaviest and largest single component, weighing 270t, was temporarily stored on a pre-assembly rack until it was finally to be replaced.
Since 2018, Mammoet had worked in close cooperation with the client MAN Energy Solutions SE und MiRO to establish the feasibility of the project, and the smoothest execution method. The reactor head was to be pre-assembled as far as possible to save time during the turnaround.
The engineering concept was as follows. A CC6800 crawler crane would be used in continuous day and night shifts to replace the pre-assembled reactor head. It would also be used for all other heavy lifts in the FCC plant. Due to the confined conditions on site, the crawler crane had to be assembled before the start of the turnaround, as the only access road to the FCC plant could not be closed. However, sudden wintry weather delayed the erection of the crane. Nevertheless, through joint efforts on site, the deadline for lift standby was met.
Four weeks later, the new reactor head was moved in the same manner from the pre-assembly area to the FCC plant, rigged with the COGAS winch, lifted into place and installed.
During the turnaround, a storm came up. The wind speed was so high that the boom of the crawler crane would need to be lowered. However, this would have blocked the only access road to the FCC plant, which would have meant an interruption to all other work. Thus, another solution had to be found.
Despite the challenging weather conditions, and the additional complicating restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the overall schedule was met.
As MRC wrote previously, tasked by company Grupa Azoty (Tarnow, Poland), one of the main players on the European fertilizer and chemical market, Mammoet has recently completed the first scope of work that will lead to the construction of the propane dehydrogenation and polypropylene (PDH/PP) blocks of its client’s chemical facility.
Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
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