English edition - Buchen UmweltService GmbH

from the Ufaneftekhim Refinery located in
Ufa. Due to an emergency, the entire coke
system from the refinery had to be shut down.
The reactor, heat exchanger and a few 100
meters of pipes had to be cleared of coke
as quickly as possible. The Buchen Industrial
Services OOO proved in the past that they
are the only company on site that can take
care of coke deposits in a short amount of
time with a high degree of quality.
Spray becomes ice
The extreme cold provided high requirements
for the people and machines. Pragmatic solutions
and also improvisation capabilities
were required. “With these temperatures below
freezing, the water in the hoses would
freeze after a short break, the cables from
remote controls or rubber wheels would
break, the electronics in the devices can fail
and parts of the protection equipment, like
gloves, become immobile”, according to Hubert
Kogel, representative general director of
the Buchen Industrial Services OOO.
Three questions had to be cleared up first:
Where do the pumps get their water from?
What can you do to make sure that the feed
pipes and pumps do not freeze? Where can
the cleaning water flow to?
The following solution suggestions were implemented:
The hose for the water supply of the
pumps were threaded into a pipe and dampened
while a certain amount of water was
guided in the canal through a fire department
distributor. This required a continual stream.
Three pumps could be set up in a hall and
made frost-proof. Another pump and a hot
water boiler, which could not fit in the hall,
were kept warm outside.
The feed pipes continually remain in operation,
but also deliver under small pressure
during non-use. A part of the feed pipes was
laid in dampened pipes. Small canals were
cut into the ice to allow the sewage to flow
into the canal system.
Initially, warm water heating had to be
thawed in the rented containers for the em-
ployees. In addition to the obligatory protection
equipment, all workers received warm
winter clothes and fur boots.
Once correctly equipped, nothing stood in
the way of the actual cleaning work, but
“Jack Frost” was responsible for other difficulties.
Thus, the spray with the high pressure
water cleaning made sure that a thick
“ice protection layer” would slowly form
around the employee’s protection suits,
which made walking nearly impossible.
The Russian Buchen employees from Ufa
took this in a relaxed manner. They had to
first warm up in a hall until they could take
off their equipment and they saw this with
humor.
Another problem was the electronics in the
pumps, which would fail at minus 25 degrees
Celsius. Thus, the switch boxes of the
high pressure pumps were steadily hit with
hot air canons. Work was done in 24 hour
shifts, which was only possible through
smooth shift changes and the mobile tanking
of the machines during operation. The
“mobile Buchen gas station” anchored on a
small truck made this possible. For all work
steps and activities, work safety always had
the highest priority.
Cold test passed
The constant exchange with the customers
about solution possibilities for cold-related
obstacles, the immediate repair of the
devices upon failure by the technical
leader Matthias Jürschik and the high
work ethic and the great dedication of the
complete Russian Buchen team, despite
the difficulties due to the weather, made
this project a success. The team should be
thanked again at this point! The Buchen
Industrial Services OOO received many
thanks from the customer in the form of
other jobs.
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