MechChem Africa September-October 2021

Modular plant, green hydrogen and the future focus of tk Uhde SA MechChem Africa talks to Rajend Govender, CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde South Africa (tk Uhde SA), along with key team members, Neville Eve; Ranka Sofijanic and Nithesh Mohun, about the modularisation of chemical process plant and the company’s future-ready expertise in green hydrogen and organic carriers such as green ammonia.

“M ost of ourwork still comes from traditional brown- field sites, whichare some of the toughest environ- ments towork in, particularly inAfrica,” begins RajendGovender, CEOof thyssenkruppUhde SA. “This opens up the opportunity to adopt themodular plant approach, which is not new tous,” says theCEO, who is a chemical process technology specialist with 20 years’ experi- ence with thyssenkrupp and Uhde. “We have long been designing and build- ing plants or sections of plant off-site under controlled conditions that are not subject to the congested and risky environment of a typical operational plant.Muchof our current work involves installingpurposedesignedand manufacturedmodular replacement units,” he tells MechChem Africa. Ranka Sofijanic, the company’s chief en - gineer for Piping and Mechanical, continues: “We are typically working on congested petrochemical plants that were originally stick-built, onsite. Upgrading suchsitesmeans workhas tobedonebetween the surrounding units, often while the plant is still live, which makes safety aspects critical. Work can only be done under hot work permits; the hours onsite are often limited by daily permitting requirements; and COVID throws additional

purpose designedwith structural integrity so it can be safely and easily transported, placed and connected-up onsite in a ‘plug-and-play’ manner. Our design skills and experience in doing this routinely give us a competitive advantage,” Eve notes. According to Govender, complementary skills sets such as laser scanning expertise are also important. “We have the modern resources and capability to scan an existing site in 3D before we start. This enables us to identify the exact space available and the exact positions for interconnection with the existing on-site plant. This allows us to design and build a perfectly customised module off- site that not onlymeets the upgrade require- ments of theplant, but on installation, theunit will ‘plug’ into the existing plant like a block of Lego,” he explains. Modularisation on a large scale enables plants to be built more cheaply. Logistics expertise allows the selection of the build location and vendor, including thoseoffshore. “Our global parent has designed modules as large as 3 000 t, which can be built, for example, in the Far East and shipped to site in the Americas,” says Eve. Sofijanic adds that while transportation of larger modules may seem expensive, it is actually very competitive when compared with the combined cost of shipping all of the individualmaterialsandcomponents required for a stick-buildplant in a remote area. “While modular projectsmay attract small incremen- tal design and structural steel costs, these are offset by the reduced cost of assembly, painting, insulation, inspections, testing and other work performed in the fabrication facility,” she says. “Along with the densification advantage – modular design requires less plot space – structural design is critical and, owing to the increased quality required to ensure plug- and-playcompatibility, themodule’s reliability and life canbe significantly improved,” contin - ues Uhde’s Chief Piping Engineer. “Climatic conditions are also a factor. In some places, particularly invery coldorwet climates, there are several months of every year when con- structionwork cannot be done. By building at a convenient off-plot site, the modular plant can be built in advance in a better environ-

limits on the number of workers allowed at any one time. “By taking the modular approach, a whole plant upgrade can be built offsite on a skid, in an open and far safer environment. No hot work permits are required, there is no congestion, no live plant to work around and no additional man-hours need to be added to guarantee meeting deadlines,” she argues. Describing a typical success, she says that tk Uhde successfully completed a modular plant upgrade for a coal tar filtration (CTFE) plant. “This project comprised 25 modules weighing up to250 t.Modules includedmulti- disciplinary pre-installation (piping, mechani- cal, instrumentation, electrical and structural) that were all built off-site, transported and installed in the live plant, and connected up,” she recalls. Neville Eve, chief of strategy for tk Uhde SA, continues: “We have also just completed a 65 t module for Natref, which was built and tested off-site before being shifted into place by a self-propelledmodular transporter (SPMT), while observing all COVID restric- tions and without any delivery time delay.” he says. “Amodular plant is much more than a rep- lica of a stick-build onsite construction that is built offsite, though. Modular plant has to be

tk Uhde successfully completed a modular plant upgrade for a coal tar filtration (CTFE) plant that comprised 25 modules weighing up to 250 t.

4 ¦ MechChem Africa • September-October 2021