Page 59 - 38

T echint E&C recently completed a km long, consisting of 13 conveyors and 7 transfer
materials handling system in Yanbu, towers. An emergency storage system along the
Saudi Arabia. The project, worth more route, near the refinery, will be able to intercept the
than 260 million dollars, is an integral coke in the event of problems downstream in the
part of a wider-ranging project for conveying system, and accumulating about 30

construction of one of the biggest thousand tons, equivalent to 5 days’ production. In

refineries in the Middle East, which Saudi Aramco the marina area, the coke will be stored in a huge

is completing in Yanbu under a joint venture with building with a single bay capable of containing

the Chinese giant Sinopec. When completed, the 150 thousand tons, corresponding to 24 days’

facility will be capable production. From here,

of processing about The part built by Techint E&C includes the coke is moved again
400 thousand barrels of by the reclaimer, which
two separate conveying systems for sends it to the belt and
crude oil a day.

The huge plant has been coke and sulphur, both of which are to the jetty area for
divided into 17 EPC supplied through direct connection of loading onto ships.
packages entrusted to Sulphur, on the other
different international the materials handling system hand, is received at the
suppliers. Four years with the refinery. refinery in liquid form and
ago Techint E&C was Coke from the coke-oven plant will be travels at a temperature
awarded the SP3 Solid carried along a conveyor belt system of about 130 °C through
measuring about 5 km long, consisting 3 km of pipes, built with
Handling Package, of 13 conveyors and 7 transfer towers a skin effect technology
which will keep sulphur
consisting of construction

of a complex system for

transportation, storage in a liquid state if the flow

and loading onto ships of coke and sulphur from should be interrupted and it should start to solidify.

refining crude oil. At the end of this route, the liquid sulphur reaches a

Investment in secondary products of refinement has solidification and pelletizing system which forms the

a high market value and has therefore increased in processing part of the plant. 11 pellet formers cool

recent years, offering new opportunities. Techint and solidify more than 84 tons of sulphur an hour

E&C is now working on a similar plant for sulphur on steel belts, in the form of tablets measuring only

handling, in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. a few millimetres across; in this form, the sulphur is

also stored in a building, located next to the coke

Transportation of coke and building, capable of containing 54 thousand tons of
sulphur product, corresponding to 42 days of work. From

here it can be sent to the loading area.
Transportation of the two products over the last

The part built by Techint E&C includes two separate section of the marina area has been designed to

conveying systems for coke and sulphur, both of permit use of a single loading system for both coke

which are supplied through direct connection of the and sulphur. The ship loader has a capacity of 2

materials handling system with the refinery. thousand tons an hour, measures 130 metres wide

Coke from the coke-oven plant will be carried and has two booms 46 metres long, which can

along a conveyor belt system measuring about 5 load the ship at the prow and stern at the same

time, thus maintaining the vessel’s stability during

loading.

The pelletizing system A technological challenge

The plant represented a major technological
challenge for a number of reasons.
For example, the route of the conveyor belt upon
reaching the coast had to be defined taking into
account an important environmental restriction:
a mangrove reserve. To avoid the reserve it was
necessary to design and build a number of
conveyor segments with a very challenging curve
radius.
Another very important aspect is the quantity of
material and the number of pieces used. A total of
over 15 thousand tons of steel, including almost
10 thousand for the machinery necessary for the
conveyor belts alone, for movement in the storage

Impiantistica Italiana - Luglio-Agosto 2015 57