Specialist Dust and Fume Extraction Installed at a leading UK Oil Refinery During Repair Works

Case Study Overview

The oil refinery is situated in the North of England and is one of Europe’s largest plants. The refinery is well known for its production of aviation fuel but it also supplies more than a sixth of the UK’s road transport fuel. One of the oil refinery's main objectives is to promote employee health and wellbeing, and it has a belief that it can operate without workers experiencing injuries or incidents, despite the often difficult working conditions in which they operate.

Challenge

A Regular Shutdown was planned to inspect, repair and improve the Catalytic Cracker Unit (CCU), a major project based on a critical plant within the refinery. Workers needed to break out refractory linings within the CCU which were covered with coke, a solid carbon deposit created as a by-product of a catalytic cracking process. Breaking the coke would create harmful dust and put the maintenance team at risk. Coke dust poses the risk of causing a pulmonary illness in people who inhale excessive quantities of it. Workers also needed to inspect, grind and weld new material within the CCU to complete the upgrade project, which would create additional airborne contaminants, including harmful welding fumes.

Solution

RVT designed an effective solution and sent experienced LEV professionals to site to set up the hazard control systems and work alongside the site team throughout the project. Firstly, after shutdown of the plant and before personnel could enter the CCU, cool air needed to be forced into the Stripper Unit. This was to reduce the extremely high air temperature to a safe level at which personnel entry could be permitted. RVT's Ventex® 450S Centrifugal Fans were installed to supply high volumes of fresh air into the Stripper Unit to cool down the work area. By using RVT's extremely powerful fans which can move up to 20,400 m3/ hr free air over long distances, it reduced the project timeline by two days, because work could start sooner than anticipated.

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