Babcock has a proud track record of process plant relocation projects. The early to mid-nineties saw the relocation of an Acrylonitrile Plant from Austria to South Africa, a Briquetting Plant from Japan to South Africa and a boiler relocated locally, from Carltonville to Springs.
Plant relocation
One such relocation was of an Ammonia and Urea production plant situated in Modderfontein, South Africa whose trip concluded in the town of Benxi in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The contract, worth R93.5m (£8 million) took place over a thirteen month period.
The Modderfontein plant consisted of three main areas, Ammonia synthesis, Urea and CO2 liquefaction plants. Each piece of equipment, pipes, valves, instruments etc in these three main areas had to be mapped and documented, tagged and scanned, dismantled and cleaned with a condition status check. Once sorted, the items destined for China were packed and transported to ports in Richards Bay and Durban and shipped to PRC.
Documenting the components of the plant occurred in 3 phases.
Phase One covered the identification of the information requirements and the nature and extent of the data. The creation of a structure for the data and the creation of links between the different data elements.
Phase Two comprised the population of the content into the agreed structure. Typical content included:
- Equipment / System Schematics and Diagrammatics
- Equipment / System Information
- Area based drawings / Images
- Photographs / Video footage
- Conditional reports
- Tagged tracking system cross reference
Phase Three involved the publication of the information so it could be accessed from a central server unit for an on-line hosted service, or by use of a download to a portable system.
Knowledge gained from relocation projects has encouraged Babcock to remain at the forefront with regards IT Architecture and best of breed tools offered by the market. It has resulted in the creation of new capabilities within the organisation addressing engineering, content management, through life support services, state of the art 3D scanning technology and integrated management processes and tools.
Interesting fact:
The project consisted of 21 000 tons of equipment, with a total of 80 000 drawings addressing some 50 000 plant items exported to China, and a further 15 000 tons sold as second hand equipment or scrap to the local market.
