Another piece of news on Achinsk Refinery upgrade came in January. A set of activities to re-manufacture and install coke drums R-201 and R-202 into permanent position was finished at Combined Petroleum Coke Production Unit. This equipment was manufactured at OAO UralKhimMash.
It was shipped as delivery packages, with assembly and rework of coke drums done in a horizontal position. Each drum weighs 289 tons and measures over 33 meters in height and 8 meters in diameter. The vessels are made from composite heat-resistant materials: double-layer steel – carbon and stainless, and the rework called for special welding procedure with post-weld heat treatment of joints. It took 16.5 months to assemble the drums. To install the equipment into design position, it was required to lift the coke drums and place them onto 23.5-meter high pedestal.
Critical installation involved a specialized US-made crawler crane Manitowoc – 18000, its lifting capacity being 750 tons. Length of this giant’s main boom is 107 meters, luffing jib length – 104 meters with the total weight of crane parts exceeding 1,300 tons. This crane was transported from its previous work site, Algeria, as loose items – first by sea to St. Petersburg and then to Rybinsk Port by rivers and canals. After that, lowbed trailers and rail transport took the crane to Krasnoyarsk Krai.
The second 250-ton crane Liebherr-1250 was used to move the vessels from horizontal into vertical position.
Experts of ZAO UralEnergoMontazh, OOO SpetsStroyMash, OOO Karat and OOO EnergoMontazh participated in coke drums installation and rework. Overall technical management and supervision were headed by Commissioning and Testing Engineering Representative of OAO UralKhimMash production and installation department.
The coke drums were put into permanent position within two days which clearly demonstrates experience, professionalism and responsibility of all the specialists of installation companies. As stated by the client’s representatives, this was the first time such works complicated in their criticality and involvement of special machinery had been performed at the refinery in the last few years, and also in all of Krasnoyarsk Krai.
Achinsk Refinery is one of the six oil refineries built in the former USSR for the last 20 years, and the only one on the territory of Russia. Its design capacity (7 million tons of oil annually) and fuel-coke type of produce was targeted at servicing the nearby region (Krasnoyarsk Krai is one of the centers of aluminium industry, the main consumer of petroleum coke).
Currently, within the investment program, a four-unit hydrocracking complex and petroleum coke production complex are under construction at Achinsk Refinery, as well as construction and refurbishment of 57 offsite facilities.