Repsol awards refinery expansion contract

Cartagena , Spain - Taim Weser will be responsible for designing, manufacturing and supplying two stockyard machinery facilities and a crane for the project to expand the Repsol YPF Cartagena Refinery. The oil company will invest more than Euro3,200 million in this project, which will double the refinery’s current production and turn it into one of the most modern plants with the greatest conversion capacity in the world.

Repsol YPF opted to use Taim Weser as its supplier in the project to expand the refinery that the company owns in Valle de Escombreras, Cartagena, Murcia. At its Bulk Material Handling business unit, the company from Aragón will be responsible for designing, manufacturing and supplying two complete storage plants, one petroleum coke and the other sulphur. Both facilities will include stockpiling machinery, gantry cranes and truck loading bays. As part of the same project, Repsol YPF has also chosen the Taim Weser Cranes business unit to supply a semi-portal grab crane to handle pet coke at the refinery. This crane, which will supply the petroleum coke storage and conveying circuit, will have a SWL of 33 tonnes, 40 m span and 500 t/h production capacity.

The Spanish-Argentine company’s total investment in this project will be more than 3,200 million Euros, the largest industrial investment ever made in the history of Spain. It will double the refinery’s production rate to 11 million tons a year, which is equivalent to 220,000 barrels a day. Apart from increasing oil distillation and conversion capacity, the project, which is expected to come into operation in 2011, aims to adapt the plant to production of clean transportation fuels, encourage the use of biodiesel and consequently improve energy efficiency, safety and environmental impact.

Taim Weser’s contribution to the Cartagena refinery expansion will consist of two complete storage facilities with the necessary machinery. The first one, for petroleum coke storage, transports the raw material produced in the drums and temporarily stores it in storage piles to later be taken to the port facilities. In this case, TAIM WESER’s supply will include the petroleum coke crushing, transport, stockpiling, reclaiming, storage and truck loading operations. Grain size will range between 0 and 88 mm, density will be 0.72 t/m3 and stockpiling and reclaiming capacities will be 500 and 600 t/h, respectively.

The process starts at a hopper where the petroleum coke is offloaded onto the shovel and the material is extracted using a feeder breaker that crushes the petroleum coke down to 80 mm. Next, the crusher discharges onto a belt conveyor system, the first in a series of conveyor systems that will take the pet coke to the stockyard. The last of these conveyors feeds a luffing stacker unloading the pet coke into a 75,000 T longitudinal stockpile.

The stockpiled pet coke is collected by a portal scraper reclaimer, which unloads it onto a belt conveyor system. Afterwards, a series of conveyor systems take the material to five temporary storage silos equipped with an automatic truck loading bay, fed by shut-off valves, some telescopic unloading devices and a truck weigh bridge. These loading stations also include a dust suppression system.

The sulphur storage facility transports the solid particles generated during the solidification process at the plant and temporarily stores them in storage piles to be taken later to the port facilities. This operation also includes crushing, transport, stockpiling, reclaiming, storage and truck loading. In this case grain size is 2 to 3 mm, density 1.04 t/m3, and stacking and reclaiming capacities are 40 and 500 t/h respectively.

The procedure is similar to above: the handling system collects the material from the sulphur pelletising plant using a belt conveyor system and then a series of conveyor systems take it to the stockyard. The last conveyor feeds the longitudinal stockpile using a stacker and unloads the sulphur into the 30,000-ton stockyard. The stockpiled sulphur is collected by a portal scraper reclaimer which unloads it onto a belt conveyor system, and then a series of conveyor systems take it to four temporary storage silos for the truck loading process. Each of these silos includes an automatic truck transfer and loading station fitted with a dust suppression system and shut-off valves, some telescopic unloading devices and a truck weigh bridge.