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In May 2006 Pörner Vienna was awarded a contract to provide selected engineering servicves to revamp the natural gas treatment plant ?Aderklaa I? operated by OMV Exploration & Production GmbH in Gänserndorf, Austria. After more than 2 years the objective was achieved to increase processing capacity from 1.3 to 1.9 million m3/d gas. In the project valued at EUR 28 million (total installed cost) Pörner acted as subcontractor to prime engineer, Black & Veatch Co. This company with its headquarters in Kansas City / USA had already built up the plants Aderklaa I and II and is a world leader in natural gas processing and sulphur recovery units. 
 

Technological challenges

Due to the fact that the acid gas gathered cannot immediately be sold because of its composition the gas treatment plant is used to remove unusable portions such as CO2 that reduces the calorific value as well as sulphur constituents from the gas. The resulting H2S is an utmost poisonous gas being very corrosive to common carbon steels.
 

FEED and EPCM

The Front End Engineering Design (FEED) being the basis of the subsequent EPCM implementation was prepared by Pörner in close cooperation with Black & Veatch. Pörner?s scope of work basically included the following: preparation of application documents, support in cost estimating, civil engineering (foundations, piperacks, pump house with gantry crane and HVAC), underground piping, electrical, instrumentation and control systems, expediting and inspection of mechanical equipment as well as preparation of the operating manual for OMV.

The equipment was procured and installed under consideration of all relevant regulations and standards such as Pressure Equipment Directive (Druckgeräteverordnung DGVO), Regulation on Explosive Atmospheres (VETAX), ATEX Product and Operating Guidelines as well as OMV works standards and pipe classes.

The finals

In August 2007 construction work started at the site, having its peak in May 2008 when the plant was shut down. Approx. 3,500 running meters of pipe with up to 16? / 900 lbs were installed and 189 tie-ins had to be executed.

The fact that the four weeks? shutdown time was strictly adhered to, the remaining work was performed during normal operation and the plant commissioned in July 2008 acc. to schedule delivers proof of the good American- Austrian cooperation.