Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers has replaced another absorption tower

Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers, part of Uralchem, completed the second stage of a large-scale investment project to modernize the sulfuric acid workshop (SAW) that included the replacement of the finite absorption tower. The project was launched in 2017 when the intermediate absorption tower, where 95% of all sulfuric acid is produced, was replaced under the existing technological process. In total, three towers are to be replaced during the modernization, which will allow the enterprise to maintain the capacity of the SAW at the target level and to increase the output in the future.

A preliminary block assembly of the tower elements was carried out as part of preparations on the premises of the sulfuric acid workshop; several dozen filter-mist eliminators were placed inside it. To carry out the selective replacement of the tower in the current technological process, special equipment was employed, including cranes with a lifting capacity of up to 250 tons. The main work was carried out in several stages: after dismantling the old installation, the blocks of the new tower were sequentially installed on the existing foundation and then tied with gas ducts and pipelines, power supply utilities and diagnostic instrumentation. Afterwards, the installation was included in the technological chain.

Gas ducts with a diameter of up to 2 m, pipelines of sulfuric acid from high alloy steels weighing more than 10 tons, walls of the catalytic converter, and metal structures weighing more than 117 tons were assembled and installed as part of the collateral activities related to the overhaul and replacement of equipment at the sulfuric acid facility. Thanks to the coordinated effort of all participants in the process – contractors, repair services of the enterprise – the work was carried out at the highest level and on schedule.

‘I am sure that including the finite absorption tower in the technological chain will not only stabilize the production facilities of the SAW at the target level, but will also lead to a reduction in equipment maintenance costs, a product quality index improvement and an increase in the environmental safety of production processes on the whole,’ noted Sergey Podguzov, Project Manager at Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers.