The last overhaul maintenance in 2019 of BSK Refinery began from the shutdown of HPAL T3 and Acid T1 on August 12 and is scheduled to end on August 26, which will last for 2 weeks. The maintenance shut-down is to thoroughly maintain the system, eliminate potential system deficits and test the performance of the equipment within HPAL T3 and Acid T1.

According to the experience of overhaul in the past, the refinery began to prepare for overhaul materials from a few months ago to ensure that key equipment can be delivered to site on time; adjust the annual leave of the relevant personnel to ensure sufficient manpower on site to deploy; arrange the preventive maintenance of other areas to ensure that the main maintenance force will be concentrated on the overhaul maintenance at that time; hold meetings for discussion of the key maintenance items to ensure a scientific and reasonable maintenance plan.

The planned overhaul focuses on the autoclave scale removal including integrity checks and thickness measurement, inspection of the cracks on the tantalum pipe, replacement of the discharge valve, the mechanical seals, agitator impellers, the main bearing on Wirth Pump and the top of high flash seal tank, descaling and inspection of the preheaters and high flash tanks.

Besides that, the maintenance items including the anticorrosion painting for the acid pipeline and tower wall, rewelding and repairing the irrigated cement of the leakage on the bottom of the second absorption tower, replacement of expansion joint at the first outlet of converter of Sulfur burning system, repairment of the external insulation for the converters, replacement of catalyst and the safety valve of the waste heat boiler drum, deaerator, economizer and annual boiler inspection and the re-alignment of blower, which is the most challengeable item in this system. Moreover, the maintenance and repair of each auxiliary system is carried out according to planned schedules.

The refinery management emphasized the importance of safety at the overhaul preparation meeting, and required full risk assessment of various operations during maintenance, especially high-risk operations, such as CSE, working at height and lifting gears, and cross-operations, which must be strictly complied with the SOP and relevant rules and regulations, ensure the guardianship and safety isolation. NO shortcuts and effectively implement the overhaul plan. Not only to ensure the completion of maintenance according to schedule, but more importantly to ensure safety maintenance, striving to achieve zero accidents. Safety officers from HSE Site Office were also busy monitoring the maintenance work.

As the last overhaul in this year, this maintenance will help improve equipment availability, reduce key equipment failures, further optimize production costs, stabilize product quality, and lay a solid foundation for safe, stable, long-term, full-load and high-quality operation in the second half of the year.

Adjusting scavenging pump

National staff servicing a Wirth pump

Engineers from KBK Mine helping with the overhaul