In Spring of 2023, OMV Petrom refinery scheduled a Turnaround to replace the old coke drums at the Ploiesti refinery in Romania. To minimise the downtime the replacement had to be completed within six weeks. Sarens rose to the challenge for our client, Woods. The Sarens crew decided to deploy: 

·       CC 8800-1 Boom Booster 

·      4 x PJ 250 jack 

·       1 x strand jack 450 tonnes 

·       1 x tailormade tailing frame for old coke drums. 

·       32 axle lines SPMT’s K24

Sarens had only six days to have the crane fully rigged at the final lifting location. To do so, the team prepared the CC 8800-1 Boom Booster and body on the laydown area before the start of the turnaround.

After preparation of the sand bed, Sarens placed around 700 mats in a 28 hours timeframe to cover the lifting area. Following this preparation, the crane body along with tracks and derrick was transported to the PJ 250 towers on the lifting location. After jacking down the crane, the complete Boom Booster was transported and connected to the body. The lifting operation was carried out in two phases. 

1.       Removal of the derrick structure and four old coke drums: The 500 tonnes derrick structure had to be lifted and placed on a temporary foundation, the CC 8800-1 Boom Booster crane lifted the derrick structure in a confined space. After the removal of the derrick, the old coke drums, weighing, 185 tonnes were reachable for lifting. Sarens R&D department designed a tailormade lifting device and tailing frame for safely lifting the coke drums. Firstly, the old coke drums were pre-tensioned by a strand jack and lifted out of the structure. The strand jack pulled the coke drum together between top and bottom. Secondly, a custom tailing frame was designed for turning the old coke drums horizontally before being moved with SPMTs to the laydown area.

2. Installation of New Coke drums & re-installation 500 tonnes derrick structure: After the old coke drums were placed in the laydown area, the SPMTs moved the 200 tonne new coke drums to the lifting location. The coke drums were tailed with standard tailing beams, so that no tailing frame was required. After installation of the new coke drums, the derrick structure was re-installed.