Environmental compliance

Louisiana contractors get big piece of Valero's ULSD unit

By Angelle Bergeron

As refineries across the country scramble to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's July deadline for new Clean Air Act specifications, Louisiana contractors are getting a big piece of the pie at Valero's St. Charles Refinery.

Valero is building a new ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) unit and auxiliary facilities to comply with the mandate. Construction of the new unit is the next step in Valero's multiphased upgrade of the facility, said Larry Goodale, major projects director.

"We've spent $1 billion on this plant in the 2.5 years we've owned it, including environmental and safety enhancements that allow us to comply with the Clean Air Act," said Ron Guillory, the refinery's director of human resources.

Although the project encompasses about 30 acres and an additional 20 acres for an offsite parking lot, it is considered an enhancement and not an expansion by Valero because it doesn't increase throughput, Goodale said.

St. Charles is one of Valero's 18 refineries worldwide selected to be upgraded with ULSD facilities. The site was chosen because of its strategic location and available space for expansion, Goodale said.

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Valero removed idle infrastructure and cleared a laydown area in order to make space in the east plant.

"Before we started construction, we hydroexcavated the full perimeter to locate obstacles and define them," Goodale added.

In March 2005, general contractor CB&I/A&B Builders of Houston began construction of the hydrocracker, hydrotreater, light-end unit and sulfur recovery units, said Tom Everage, site manager.

"Valero has an offsite portion that builds all the tie-ins with the existing unit," he said. Technip USA Corporation is the general contractor for the hydrogen plant, which is located on the east end of the ULSD unit in an area with enough space for future expansion.

Although CB&I previously completed a $128 million gasoline desulfurization unit (GDU) for Valero at the same site, the current project is more challenging because of the volume of work to be done in the allotted time, Everage said.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita put the contractor behind by an estimated eight weeks. Katrina resulted in an eight-day shutdown at the refinery, some vendor delays, flooding and employee displacement.

"We had Rita go through CB&I's engineering group in the Beaumont area and it had to relocate to three other locations to try to keep up the pace," Everage said. "When you have that happen, you lose time as well as continuity and pace."

CB&I is doing its best to catch up by working six, 10-hour days a week, Everage said.

Construction of the ULSD unit included many miles of pipe, 4,400 underground support piles, 9,500 cu. yds. of concrete for foundations and 60,000 cu. yds. of fill material.

"We have procured our long-lead-time equipment items - reactors, compressors, heat exchangers, pumps - so we could expedite the construction process," Goodale said. Reactors from India, compressors and pumps from Italy, and heat exchangers from Korea are "on the water heading this way as we speak," he added.

CB&I contracted Mammoet, a specialty heavy hauling company in Texas, to offload the heavier vessels as they come into the Port of New Orleans, transport >> them to the refinery and erect them.

"These vessels are difficult to transport on land due to both their size and weight (because of the heavy-wall design)," Everage said. "They are 130 ft. long and 12 ft. in diameter with 4.5-in. walls."

In January, Mammoet offloaded five heavy-wall vessels (three of which weighed 640 tons apiece) onto self-propelled motorized transports and transported them up the Mississippi River just east of the Bonnet Carre Spillway.

Mammoet then moved the vessels over the levee on the south side of the spillway and transported them by truck to the site.

"They can't come all the way down River Road because of low overhead clearances and they can't offload on the other side of the spillway due to load requirements of local bridges," Everage said.

Cajun Constructors Inc. of Baton Rouge, the project's civil contractor, is performing the piling and the concrete foundation work. The project required timber, precast, sheet, auger-cast and pipe piles.

"We did have a challenge while procuring the precast piles," said Ronald Barber, project manager. "With the demand throughout the country for piling and only a certain number of precasters in the South, they were having a difficult time meeting delivery requirements even before the storm."

Cajun had to get assistance from three pile suppliers in an attempt to meet the schedule.

"We also lost our rebar supplier because he got wiped out (by Katrina)," Barber said. "We switched to a place in Beaumont and Rita knocked them out briefly."

As a result, Cajun's original Dec. 31 completion date was moved to the end of March.

"We were originally supposed to be finished before CB&I started to install pipe, structural steel and setting equipment," Barber said. "Now we'll be driving pilings and pouring foundations at the same time."