Huge first stage reactor erected at HPCL; heaviest of its sort in India

Shot in the arm for PSU’s refinery modernisation project

The reactor erected at the HPCL refinery on Tuesday weighed 1,646 tonnes, making it the heaviest to be erected in a single piece in the Indian oil industry, according to HPCL officials.

A huge first stage reactor weighing 1,646 tonnes was successfully erected at HPCL’s facility in the city on Tuesday, marking a milestone in the public sector undertaking’s modernisation drive.

The reactor, with an erection weight of 1,646 tonnes (1,858 tonnes including internals) was erected using the 3,200-tonne MSG 80 crane of Mammoet along with a tailing frame with a capacity of 2,000 tonnes, resting on an SPMT of 1,540 tonne. “This was one of the heaviest reactors erected in a single piece in the Indian oil industry,” an HPCL spokesman said. This is the second reactor to be erected; an earlier one was erected on June 11.

As part of HPCL’s Visakh Refinery Modernisation Project, India’s largest Full Conversion Hydro Cracker Unit (FCHCU) with a capacity of 3.05 million tonnes per annum is being set up. The licensor for this unit is Universal Oil Products and the project management consultant is Engineers India Limited.

The first and second stage reactors form the heart of this unit. The first stage reactor, the heaviest in India, has a wall thickness of 254.5 mm and stands 55.6 metres tall. The second stage reactor weighs in at 454 tonnes, has a wall thickness of 184.5 mm and stands 28.5 m tall.

Both the reactors, supplied by Larsen & Toubro, were shipped from Hazira on March 22 and were received at the Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) here on April 24. A special purpose multi-axle vehicle was used to transport the reactors from HSL’s jetty to the Visakh Refinery project site on April 28.

Ahead of deadline

The milestone was successfully achieved three weeks ahead of the 20-month schedule by close monitoring and coordination by HPCL-VRMP’s senior management with GVMC, APEPDCL, AP Transco and HSL.

All activities beginning from receipt and unloading of the reactors at the site, assembly of the MSG 80 crane and the SPMT with tailing frame arrangement were closely reviewed and monitored by the HPCL-VRMP senior management with regard to safety, quality and schedule, the spokesman said.