OREANDA-NEWS. December 31, 2009. A momentous event occurred at TANECO, Refining and Petrochemical Complex Construction. A sophisticated operation of vacuum column installation was carried out at mid-November, the column which a major component of CDU VDU-7.

Deputy Chief Engineer of the Refinery, Alexey Zurbashev, emphasized that this equipment would compliment the system of CDU VDU process sections, atmospheric distillation unit, and will enable CDU VDU to output products according to the designed nomenclature. The column is intended for vacuum distillation of oil fuel (mazout) with its derivatives, diesel fuel oil, vacuum gas oil and heavy residue.

Vacuum gas oil, in its turn, will be feed for hydrocracking process, targeting to obtain such distillates as naphtha, kero and diesel fuel oil in compliance with ecological standard ЕURO-5. The rests of the hydrocracking will be processed into top quality base oils of API Group III having high viscosity index and good stability against oxidation. The heavy residue will be used for secondary processes.

Consequently, vacuum column will be an intermediate link in the process diagram of the Project and will facilitate the improvement of oil deep conversion.

The column fabricated at JSC VolgogradNefteMash, was transported to Niizhnekamsk still in June this year. The precious cargo arrived in the town by water, and then it started its way from the mooring base to the site along the specially reconstructed truck road. The vacuum column was transported by three heavy haulers “MAZ-7313” with trailers to the place of its final destination. The memory of Nizhnekamsk inhabitants will forever keep the picture of 60-meter train, which crawled at speed not exceeding three kilometers per hour.

The enormous weight of the new column (362 metric ton) and height (43,1 m) would not allow to install it by means of ordinary technical devices. Not a simple crane was required but a real giant which was specially manufactured by German “Liebherr” , the acknowledged manufacturer of construction appliances world at large.

A very serious preparatory procedure anteceded the uprise of the column, where engaged were OJSC TANECO, OOO NefteGasEngineering, General Contractor, specialists, SOPiG representatives, being direct executors of work. To avoid eventual faults, the entire proceeds of the operation was calculated to the tiny details. Even at the early stage of the column manufacturing the refiners regularly visited Volgograd to monitor the progress and quality of works. They were also participated at the final hydrostatic test of the equipment.

Substantially more efforts were put into preparation of the site which was expected to hold out titanesque stress. The constructed covering was designed for the weight of 1500 tn. New engineering solutions were required also for construction of 16-meter-foundation, which became a reliable substructure thereafter for the vacuum column.

One must certainly appreciate the lifting devices which were engaged in the installation procedure. The main load was referred to crawler caterpillar crane of “Liebherr” capacitating to 750 tn. Nowadays in Russia there are total three machines of the kind. Its prominent peculiarities are titanic power and high intellectual characteristics. Reliability, preciseness and safety of the works are secured by computer control system. There is also a place for a man in this process, most certainly. Furthermore, normal conditions also envisage the work of not one but three operators altogether. Therefore, the manufactures of the equipment did their best to fully exclude human factor which very often is the main reason of multiple errors and emergencies.

So, Ildar Akhmetov, the General Director of OOO SOPiG informed of the “black box” in the brain center of the crane, just like it was in an airplane. Here all the variables of the mechanism work are fixed. During the decoding of the data it is possible to obtain full information of the crane “health”, to get to know in what mode the machine is functioning, whether overload has been allowed.

It is worthy to mention that as opposed to winged machines where one would recall of the “black box” just after a crash, the builders inspect their “iron fiends” every month. This practice is acknowledged in the whole world. It is not by chance that emergencies with such powerful lifting devices are rare.

Straightforwardly one more crane participated in the column uprise– the one with the carrying capacity of 350 tn, also two 100-tn cranes were engaged during the performance of secondary works. This operation on the transfer and installation of the column took nearly four hours. It claimed maximal stress and precision from people. Each movement of the machine was aligned and carefully calculated. In the opinion of specialists, this activity was performed under normal conditions, with no delays or suddenness.

And though OJSC TANECO and OOO SOPiG specialists preserved an equal mind from the very beginning to the very end, they could quietly breathe in only thereafter as the 362-tn leviathan took its honorable chair. This is most natural: the vacuum column is the largest heavy weight equipment which was installed from the start of the Project execution. The builders, being always superstitious people, were not in a hurry to make evaluations and give interviews to the full completion of the works, and before the installation they even invited а Mullah to bless the crane. Nevertheless, they say, heaven helps those who help themselves. And really, the victorious palms gained people for this heroic deed: clients, contractors, and, of course, investor of the Project, Tatneft. Thanks to its large-scale plans on Tatarstan land, such industrial giants emerged here which become a warranty of the stable development of not just our Republic, but also all Russia.