Mobile Site Generated Nitrogen makes catalyst handling-removal safe and efficient.

After the fire and prior to any decision being made as to the future of the refinery, the employees of our New Jersey location got busy exploring applications where our Specialty Rental Solutions would be beneficial during the rebuilding or decommissioning process. Eventually it was determined that the fire damage to the refinery was so extensive that the location would be shut down and decommissioned.

During decommissioning, many industrial and manufacturing plants require chemicals and substances be removed for environmental reasons. Some chemicals and catalysts are recycled and sold, as they have value to operational plants or refineries.

One decommissioning application where we help reduce a customer’s pain point is during the catalyst removal process. Catalyst handling and removal requires the use of an inert gas, such as nitrogen, to eliminate the chemical reaction inside catalyst reactors. Nitrogen inerting of the process piping and reactors, allows catalyst to be safely removed from these vessels. Often trained employees with special breathing equipment enter these catalyst reactors, vacuuming the catalyst out and depositing it into inert containers, where it is transported to storage locations.

The planning and persistence of the employees at Atlas Copco Rental – New Jersey helped this project come to fruition, even though there were many obstacles to overcome.

Unseen are many hours of phone calls and emails due to having new owners and contractors discussing project details such as, N2 delivery temperature requirements and flow delivery variations with changing ambient temperatures.

It is also important to remember that this refinery, like most large industries we work with, have long term contracts in place to deliver bulk nitrogen.

Purity is often seen as the most critical requirement of any N2 project. In this case, the precedent was to require nitrogen with a purity level of 99.99%. After review of this requirement with the client’s engineering group, it was determined that Atlas Copco Rental being able to achieve 99% purity with our membranes would be satisfactory for this project. This adjustment in purity allowed the customer to take advantage of our mobile onsite nitrogen generation package that proved to be very versatile and relieved a major pain point during decommissioning.

Through optimized versatility, our engineered nitrogen solutions allow the customer to alter flow, pressure and temperature. We are able to adapt to seasonal changes, we can also produce N2 in remote locations where 480 volt power is not available.

This project is an ongoing success thanks to all the hard work from the Atlas Copco Rental Team in Fairfield, NJ.