Saddle Up: Customized Solutions Place Refinery Column with Care, Ease

The Deep South team was tasked to receive, transport and set a 790,025-pound debutanizer. This specialized distillation column measures 174’-3” long with a 21’-3” diameter.

The debutanizer was received from an ocean-going vessel at the Port of New Orleans. Once cleared through customs, the debutanizer was loaded on a barge and pushed to a roll-off site in nearby Garyville and prepared for transport to the refinery.

The column was lifted on to a double-wide 18-axle-line Scheuerle SPMT for the initial 2.25-mile haul to the refinery. Along the way, crews built a temporary bridge to cross a railroad track, to accommodate the length and weight of the debutanizer.

The debutanizer was then lifted with an 800-ton gantry onto cribbing in readiness for the one-mile move to the lift location. To facilitate the transport, the Deep South in-house engineering and fabrication team customized the debutanizer’s shipping saddles for the 52-ton Scheuerle SPMT-SL (Split) Trailers. The SPMT-SL has a per axle line load rating of 104,000 pounds. That adjustment helped shrink the overall transport envelope of the debutanizer, lower the load and accommodate a problematic route in tight conditions.

One of the challenges was that the debutanizer load needed to cross under multiple pipe racks with very little clearance (less than 1”). The debutanizer was designed specifically to fit under the pipe racks with minimal clearance. The shipping saddles with the split trailer configuration was ideal for this circumstance.

An 1,800-ton VersaCrane™ TC-28000 in configuration 4/8 with a 303’ main boom and a double-wide 12-axle-line Scheuerle SPMT with tailing frame were used to lift the debutanizer onto its foundation. Once vertical, the debutanizer was set on its foundation using the VersaCrane TC-28000.