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Refinery to move big equipment
April 17, 2008 – 5:42PM
By CYNTHIA M. ELLIS and STEVE WHITWORTH The Telegraph
ROXANA – Talk about Big Oil.
Looking more like the stages of an Apollo Saturn 1B rocket, two sections of a new “wet-gas” scrubber sit along Illinios Route 3 in Hartford, waiting to be moved slowly to the WRB Refining Wood River Refinery in Roxana.The WRB Refining Wood River Refinery is planning to move two huge pieces of equipment in the near future that will assist with better air quality at its Roxana plant.
How huge, you ask? Well, each of the two “wet-gas” scrubbers that will be moved weighs about 241,000 pounds. And each of the two gigantic vehicles used to transport them weighs 316,000 pounds, for a grand total of more than a half-million pounds when it is loaded. Even lying on its side aboard the transporter, the scrubber stands about three stories tall.
The company is planning to move the two large pieces of equipment and two smaller ones from the Wood River Levee along the Mississippi River at Piasa Lane in Hartford to its plant. Several roads will have to be shut down during the process, including Illinois Routes 3 and 111.
Melissa Erker, spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips, which operates the Wood River Refinery, said that plans are in the works to move the two wet-gas scrubber units from the riverfront along 6 miles of road. She said the road closures would be rolling closures.
Erker said one of scrubbers became noticeable to the public this past week when it was moved from behind the levee in order to prevent it from being damaged by rising floodwaters.
The refinery had scheduled the equipment to delivered on Saturday, but the project was delayed because the second scrubber has yet to be off-loaded from a barge, Erker said. She said the high water on the Mississippi had delayed the off-loading, and the work has not yet been rescheduled.
“We plan to make the move all together, rather than doing it piece by piece,” she said.
The Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois State Police and area police agencies will be involved in supervising the move over the roads and controlling traffic.
Erker said the transporters are capable of traveling 6 mph, but company officials expect it will take about 6 hours to negotiate the 6-mile route. The actual travel time will depend on how long it takes to obtain permission from the railroad to move the equipment across its crossing on Robbins Road, among other factors, she said.
“The good news is that because the route is what it is, we should be able to detour everyone around it with very minimal impact,” Erker said. She said the company will put notices in the newspaper when the move is imminent, and there will be signage and police officers assisting with traffic control. Two smaller pieces of equipment, the actual stacks for the scrubbers, also will be moved on flatbed trucks at the same time, forming a caravan with the two huge Scheurle self-propelled module transporters.
The transporters themselves are amazing machines. Each has 16 axles, with eight wheels per axle. The multiple axles allow the specialized vehicle to distribute its loaded weight evenly across road surfaces in order not to damage them. Erker said the weight of the load is distributed better on the transporters than it would be on a normal tractor-trailer.
Each transporter is 87 feet 10 inches long, while the scrubber vessels themselves are 100 feet 6 inches long.
The equipment will be moved east across Illinois Route 3 at Piasa Lane; north on South Delmar Avenue; east on Robbins Road to Illinois Route 111; south on Route 111 for about one-eighth of a mile; east on Wagon Wheel Road; north on Hedge Road; then across Madison Avenue in South Roxana through the south entrance of the plant.
Erker said the scrubber units are being installed to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations to help reduce sulfur dioxide and particulate matter emissions at the plant. The first scrubber will be installed later this year on an existing catalytic cracker inside the refinery.
ConocoPhillips is planning a $4 billion upgrade that will enable the refinery to add a coker unit and allow the plant to process Canadian crude oil. The coking process allows extraction of more product from the crude oil.
ConocoPhillips announced its plans and partnership with EnCana last year. The project is expected to create 1,500 jobs.
Although the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency approved the refinery to move ahead with its plans, several environmental organizations appealed the project. The organizations criticized the project as being in conflict with the Clean Air Act.
The Roxana plant has a crude oil processing capacity of 306 million barrels per day.
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This is update on WRN (COP & EnCan JV) Refinery expansion – the movement of 2 giant Scrubbers to plant which will enable the first new coker expansion 55-60 MBD for Woodriver (but second coking unit counting integrated Hartford coking unit).
Hope picture of first scrubber section makes it in this news post. A recent April 2008 news post also show the Keystone P/L (COP 50% ownership) @ 2150 miles & 590 MBD Bitumen crude from Canada was on track & would be operational next year.
Eventually WRN Woodriver/Roxxana Coking Refinery will process up to 400 MBD of EnCan Upgrader blended Bitumen crudes and will require a secont new coker (Coker II) expansion at the WRN Refinery.
Regards
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