Times of Oman reported that Larsen and Toubro Heavy Engineering, a JV between India’s engineering giant Larsen & Toubro and The Zubair Corporation has completed a prestigious project of manufacturing 4 critical reactors for ONGC’s Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited complex in India.
These will to be exported to India in the third week of this month for installing in Mangalore Aromatic Complex in their petrochemical refinery. The equipments were fabricated at the Larsen & Toubro Heavy Engineering manufacturing complex in Sohar.
It took six months to complete the manufacturing work after procuring materials from reputed suppliers in Europe and Japan. The successful completion of the work is another landmark achievement for Oman and testimony to the fabrication capabilities of the Sohar based Larsen & Toubro Heavy Engineering.
An aromatics complex is a combination of process units which are used to convert petroleum naphtha to the basic petrochemical intermediates benzene, toluene and xylenes.
NHT reactors, two of the equipments manufactured, are required for hydro treating Naphtha to reduce sulphur and nitrogen content as these impurities are harmful for downstream catalytic reforming reactor catalyst. The catalytic reforming unit produces a mix of BTX and other heavy aromatics.
These equipments have been designed as per American Society of Mechanical Engineers pressure vessel code. Construction material of these equipments involved specialized alloy steel. Low alloy steel material was chosen to provide elevated design temperature strength.
To increase the corrosion resistance, stainless steel weld overlay and cladding inside the shell surface was provided in some equipment. Equipment shell thicknesses were as high as 146 mm and fabricated weight of the equipments were as high as 175 tonnes.
Low alloy steel materials require utmost attention during welding due to complex welding metallurgy and weldability requirement. Plate materials and welding consumables were brought from reputed suppliers of Europe and Japan.
During fabrication, all welding have been carried out in a controlled temperature range to minimize chances of brittle phases in weld metal. All the weld joints were given post weld heating to reduce hydrogen levels in weld metal.
(Sourced from www.timesofoman.com)
