Six huge coke drums at the Chevron El Segundo Refinery, which produces 20 p.c of Southern California automobile gas, were displaying their age after 46 years in service. Nearly 5 decades of excessive-stress/high-heat cycles that thermally crack crude oil molecules into petroleum products have been also cracking the coke drum shells. This cracking posed a significant problem to their safe removing and alternative in a $fifty five million turnaround accomplished in June 2014. Everyone involved in the undertaking credit intensive planning by experienced contractors, continuous prime-to-backside communication, and modern downside fixing for making the venture one Chevron calls orld Class

ur method was to rent one of the best we could get, because the job was going to be high risk. ly we wished no person to get severely hurt because any potential incident on a construction like this might be fatal,stated Rick Miller, Chevron Coke Drum Reliability Project Manager. o we decided to sole supply to Nooter, who arguably along with their sister firm Wyatt are the premiere coke drum substitute contractors./p>

Strategy:

The El Segundo coke drums had come full circle for Nooter Development, the St. Louis Firm that put in them in 1968. Nooter has an extended historical past of coke drum turnarounds, specializing in removing the chopping deck and derricks from the top of the Coker unit to allow one-piece drum removal and alternative.

sing this technique to remove and exchange a completed coke drum on common takes about a day to carry out. This compares to a period of roughly one month per drum if the vessels were removed and replaced in sections,mentioned Ed Collins, Nooter Construction Senior Rigging Engineer. f the benefit of expediting a project versus the fee to expedite outcomes is a ratio greater than one, it solidifies our place to perform the high risk one piece construction elevate operation. Now we have sometimes discovered owners agreeable to this method./p>

Results:

The crane required two months simply to set up but was capable of moving the six derrick structure and slicing deck in a single piece without twisting or distorting the shape.

The planning paid off during a key resolution involving the method to take away the previous coke drums. Usually, lifting lugs are welded onto opposite sides of each drum so slings can be attached to raise the drums out. However considerations emerged that the required welding would prolong the turnaround time and that the stress on the lifting lugs may trigger unnoticed cracks on the 46 yr outdated vessels to open.

rom the standpoint of constructability and value, every part of the design labored precisely as intended,Collins said.

hat saved an enormous period of time and was a really technically savvy approach to do it. It appeared a bit bit old style in comparison with welding on large fancy lifting lugs. Nevertheless it worked perfectly,Miller mentioned.