Casale provides project updates

All equipment of all units was already delivered to the site before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, while it has been possible to anticipate the critical activity of testing and qualifying the welders since all relevant materials and procedure were made available well in advance than scheduled. Owing to this, the piping prefabrication and installation could be started and it is underway.

Casale believes the ammonia unit will be put onstream within the end of this year.

The company has also announced that on 7 May 2020 the surge test of the turbo-set of the 1500 tpd nitric acid plant of Navoyazot (pictured), located in Navoz, Uzbekistan, was successfully completed. Following the surge test, the turbo-set has been operated to blow the main process lines, and on 13 May 2020 the blowing was also completed successfully.

The turbo-set, supplied by MAN Turbo, is a complex machine that lays at the heart of the nitric acid plant . It is composed by a steam turbine, an air compressor axial type, a nitrous gas centrifugal compressor and a tail gas expander.

In middle of March, when the test was imminent, the coronavirus pandemic forced MAN to demobilise their personnel onsite. Casale and MAN immediately devised and rapidly put in place an alternative plan, with the aim of attempting to commission the machine with remote supervision by MAN’s engineers.

The machine was connected via web with MAN’s central office so that it could be commissioned, operated and controlled remotely throughout the whole procedure.

Navoyazot’s nitric acid plant is now one step closer to start-up, scheduled by the end of this month of May.

Image courtesy of Casale

Read the article online at: https://www.worldfertilizer.com/project-news/25052020/casale-provides-project-updates/