Expansion of FCC Punta Cardn Refinery, Venezuela
April 20, 2011 – ALE managed several operations for the FCC refinery of Punta Cardon including the transportation of a new
reactor; the site movement of a new domo; and the removal of the existing stripper, absorber, reactor, regenerator, fractionator and domo.
The removal manoeuvres were executed using a 70 metre, self-stabilising skidding gantry which covered an area of 45 metres and included two strand lifting units of 500te capacity each. Transporting the 510te new reactor from the preassembling area to under the lifting gantry required 28 SPMT lines with a turning frame. Along the route, the transport had to negotiate bends of 90˚ and pass under a pipe rack. For this, ALE had to jack down the reactor along the total length of the pipe rack using four climbing jacks of 300te each and four skid lines with SS-150 skidding equipment. The new domo, weighing 420te, was moved using SPMTs.
