DAMMAM, April 28, 2004 -- An uncommon passenger disembarked April 2 in Dammam on its way to a job for Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Co. (Sasref).
The passenger was a 75-ton
heat exchanger made by Borsig GmbH of Berlin. The 13-meter long, 3-meter-diameter machine was on its way to a job as Sasref's gas waste heat boiler. It had a ticket on the world's largest transportation aircraft - a Russian-built Antonov heavy-lift cargo jet, bound for King Fahd International Airport at Dammam.
The delivery of the equipment was the latest step in a long-term business relationship between Sasref and Borsig that began in 1982, when the refinery was built in Jubail.
Today, after 20 years in production, parts of the refinery need to be renewed. The Borsig boiler is being used to maintain the original "like for like" process and design, thereby minimizing delivery time, plant downtime for replacement and therefore production loss.
The boiler is used in the hydrogen manufacturing unit to cool the process gas from 835°C to 350°C. The gas enters the waste heat boiler at high temperature and under high pressure, then flows through tubes that transfer heat to the water that flows around the tubes. High-pressure steam is produced and used for the refinery operations.
Sasref is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Shell. As one of the 15 largest and most modern refining projects in the world, its main business is refining crude oil from Saudi Aramco, using the most advanced technology to process more than 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The company produces high quality oil products such as naphtha, kerosene, benzene, gas oil, long residues, sulfur, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel oil.
