WRITE UP ON LNG PROJECT AT SKIKDA, ALGERIA

The new LNG Train Skikda Project is a natural gas liquefaction plant at
Skikda, Algeria. The facility consists of one 4.5 MMTPA LNG process train
with associated utilities and offsites. The LNG process train includes the
following facilities.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

CO2 Removal/Acid Gas Removal.

Dehydration.
Mercury Removal.
Liquefaction.
Fractionation.
Propane and Mixed Refrigeration system.

The utility and offsites facilities include systems for Power Generation,
Propane, Butane, Gasoline storage, LNG storage, Hot Oil, Plant Air,
Instrument Air and Water systems.
KBR (Kelloge Brown and Root International) is providing design,
procurement, monitoring and construction of LNG Train for M/s. Sonatrach.
EIL has been selected as a PMC for Sonatrach.
The working environment at Skikda is completely different from Indian
sites. The working culture is quite systematic, well defined and well
organised. KBR has its own standards and specifications. The following are
some of my observations which need to be thought of and to be
implemented.
a) KBR has maintained a well versed documentum system. All
equipment related data sheets, piping isometrics, GADs, Standards,
Specifications, all quality related documents, WPS, PQR, Job
procedures etc. each and every documents are uploaded in
documentum. KBR has given full access to view all these documents
for review. There is absolutely no need of issuing any hard copies to
the contractor. Any document required by contractor can be
searched through documentum, download, can take print out and
give it to the subcontractor for execution. This will save a lot of
paper as well as project time. EIL has its own documentum system
in the form of EDMS but proper implementation has not yet been
done. A deep review of this system needs to be done by our
management so that it can be implemented soon and can be
benefited.
b) For smooth and efficient execution of a project, safety plays a
major role. In most of the Indian sites we are facing a lot of trouble
in the form of accident, death of worker which is mainly due to
negligence of adhering safety at site. Also, lack of adequate safety

personnel leads to accident at sites. It has become a major problem

in most of Indian sites now a days. In Skikda project, KBR has
deployed a separate, adequate and dedicated safety personnel
whose sole duty is to look after all safety aspects at site and its
surroundings, give clearance to carry out all hot work at site after
satisfactory surveillance by the safety personnel every day before
starting of work. Not only this, before entering to construction
/project area for the first time, one must carry out safety training
conducted by KBR safety officer and must obtain safety badges.
Without these safety badges nobody is allowed to enter site. KBR
has also maintained a strict rule with respect to safety violation by
anyone which may lead to cancellation of work permit or fine of
huge amount. It is because of all these strict rules KBR has
completed its execution/construction part without any accident.
c) KBR has a very good manpower planning for job execution at site.
They have deployed adequate and separate manpower for different
different departments such as for looking after piping fabrication,
piping erection, painting, insulation, NDE, preparing quality
documents, separate billing departments etc. In this process, one
can achieve their assigned task smoothly and also one can give
100% concentration and quality in his respective work. EIL has a
major drawback in this case. Due to lack of adequate manpower, a
single engineer has to look after multiple jobs and as a result he can
not give his full concentration in all such multiple jobs at a time
which leads to poor quality in works. It may also create a lot of
mistakes in work execution due to overload and high work pressure
on his head.
d) Proper planning is must for smooth execution at site. KBR has
planned very effectively to execute LNG project at Skikda. They
have executed work step by step i.e. before starting above ground
piping, KBR has completed all underground piping jobs, equipment
erection, pavement works, pipe rack erection, cable laying. In this
process work has become more effective and error free. In India
more often it can be seen that above ground piping jobs started
before completing underground piping works, pavement works,
equipment erection, pipe rack erection etc. This leads to huge
modification and wastage of time, money and manpower.
e) The most beautiful part in Skikda project is structural steel work.
All works was completed in a shop and pre fabricated hot deep
galvanised structural steels were assembled at site. There is not a
single welding joint found in structural steels. All pipe racks were
assembled with bolted joints. Lot of time can be saved by this
process.

f) In KBR piping isometric drawings, every information such as

Line list document number, P&ID number, type of Insulation, type of
painting, PWHT etc. are mentioned. By this a lot of time can be
saved in searching related P&ID and line list document. In EIL
drawings these informations were not included (in DHDT project,
IOCL-BGR site) and as a result we had to search a lot to find out
related P&ID drawing , line list, type of insulation, painting, PWHT.
During preparation of isometric drawing if all such informations can
be included then it will help a lot to execution engineer.

Write up on Fertilizer Plant

The new Indorama Fertilizer project is a natural gas to ammonia and urea
based plant at Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The facility consists of 2400 MTPD
Ammonia plant and 4000 MTPD urea plant with utilities and offsites.
Japan's Toyo Engineering has been chosen for Design, Engineering and Pre
commissioning and Commissioning activities and South Korea's Daewoo
Engineering is awarded construction contract for the whole facilities. KBR
has been chosen for providing its purifying technology for the project.
Feedstock will be supplied by the Nigerian Azienda Generale Italiana
Petroli pipeline company through an 84 km long pipeline with a diameter
of 35cm.
The name "Ammonia" (NH3) itself suggests that it is a mixture of Nitrogen
and Hydrogen. The primary source of availability of hydrogen can be
obtained from natural gas and other hydrocarbons like propane, butane,
liquid fuel gasoline. As higher hydrocarbons contain more carbon atoms
per hydrogen atom than natural gas, these are less effective. So the
ultimate choice for hydrogen resource is the natural gas(Methane).
Nitrogen is obtained from air.
The primary need of any ammonia plant to produce ammonia is the
synthesis gas. Synthesis gas is a mixture of Hydrogen, carbon monoxide
and a few amounts of carbon dioxide. The different steps through which
synthesis gas and ammonia is produced can be summarised as below.
1) Desulfurization.
2) Catalytic Reforming.
3) Shift Conversion.
4) Carbon dioxide absorption and stripping.

5) Methanation.
6) Ammonia Synthesis.
7) Chilling.
8) Preservation.
A brief description or understanding of each steps is given below.
Desulfurization:
The natural gas is initially fed to the feed gas compressor via feed gas
knock out drum and after compression the high temperature and high
pressure natural gas or feed gas is passed to the heat recovery section of
the primary reformer to pre heat. The pre heated natural gas is then
passed to the two stage zinc oxide based reactors called desulfurizer
where removal of sulfur takes place. The main reason of sulfur removal is
that natural gas may contain sulfur and other sulfur related compounds
which may poison the catalyst and deactivate proper functioning of
catalyst.
Catalytic Reforming:
The desulfurized natural gas leaving the reactors is then mixed with
process steam, preheated and enters to the primary reformer section.
The primary reformer consists of a number of nickel chromium catalyst
tubes which are filled with nickel based reforming catalyst. Here in this
primary reformer section, the gas and steam mixture reacts in presence of
nickel catalyst at a very high temperature and produce Hydrogen, CO2
and CO. This process is known as steam reforming. Following this, the
process gas is sent to the secondary reformer, where it is mixed with
sufficient amount of compressed air to produce synthesis gas. The high
temperature gas leaving the secondary reformer is then fed to the waste
heat boiler to recover excess heat from the process gas.
Shift Conversion:
After cooling in waste heat boiler, the process gas enters in a two stage
shift converters called high temperature shift converter (HTS) and low
temperature shift converter (LTS) to maximise the conversion. Initially, the
process gas passes through a bed of iron oxide / chromium oxide catalyst
at around 370 degree centigrade and then over a copper oxide / zinc
oxide catalyst at around 210 degree centigrade. The outcome is process
gas with CO content is less than 0.4%.
CO2 removal:

CO2 gas can prove to be a very dangerous component if it is left in the

atmosphere untreated. If the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere
increases beyond a certain specified level then possibility of green house
effect and global warming will increase drastically and so the ardent need
of treating CO2 gas before releasing it in the atmosphere has become
much important. The emission of CO2 gas can be arrested by absorption
and stripping process with the addition of amine solvent. Amine solvents
called methyl diethanol amine (MEA) are used since they react with CO 2
under certain conditions. A lean solvent (low CO 2 concentration) is fed into
the top of the absorber. The solvent is counter currently contacted by flue
gas containing CO2. The CO2 chemically reacts with the amine solvent and
the treated gas exits the top of the absorber. This rich amine (high CO 2
concentrations) leaves the bottom of the absorber and is preheated by a
lean solution/ semi lean solution exchanger before entering the top of the
stripper. In the stripper, typically at a higher temperature and pressure
than the absorber, the reaction between the amine and CO2 is reversed
which liberates CO2 into a concentrated stream obtained at the top of the
stripper. The lean solvent from the stripper undergoes heat exchange and
goes back to the absorber to repeat the process. This treated CO2 is
further processed in urea plant for making urea.
In this process, methane is produced by chemical reaction of hydrogen
with carbon monoxide. The outgoing gas with less than 0.4% CO from HTS
converter is fed to the methanator.