Thermax was awarded one of its largest export orders for a large refinery project coming up in Nigeria. Thermax assembled all the plug and play modules in its modularisation yard at Mundra SEZ and delivered all the modules from March 2019 to November 2019. Thermax delivered 8 x HRSGs, 4 x UBs and 2 x FGSG modules. These modules are amongst the biggest, heaviest boiler and HRSG modules delivered anywhere in the world.
LSPL was involved with Thermax since the bidding stage for study of transport engineering of the modules from their yard in Mundra to the port of Mundra and then to be rolled on to RoRo ships.
The equipment fabrication plan was such that work at site in Nigeria would be kept to the minimum.
1. The engineering involved study of arrangements to limit modification to the minimum.
2. The road width at Adani Mundra Port was lower than the max width of the modules to be transported. This implied that when transport of the modules would take place total traffic to the ports on roads would need to stop (all truck/trailer/car) movements of import/export cargo containers/breakbulk.
3. The heaviest equipment weighed 1,200 ton and would be the heaviest modules to be transported from Mundra Port and requiring to cross the Nevinal canal.
4. The tallest equipment for transport stood at 22 m, that meant removal of 1 high tension tower line on number of occasions as and when crossing was required, the tower line was permanently taken underground, this led reduction of down time of power and hence less trouble to the public due to power outrage.
5. Finally, the discussion revolved to management of traffic during transport of modules.
It was agreed by all parties to plan transport in 2 or 3 stages, thereby causing limited port work stoppage and eliminating traffic jams.
6. The client nominated ship suitable to carry the cargo and operate at Adani Mundra Port where the tidal range is 6 m. For Adani Mundra Port this was going its first ever RoRo operation since port inception.
7. It was finally concluded that the loadout would be done at 2 different jetty/terminal—the multipurpose terminal for side on operations and container terminal for stern on operations.
8. The next requirement was to stow the equipment at 1.5 m height suitable for the receiver trailers at Nigeria, so wooden blocks which were kept between the trailer and modules to achieve the height of 1.5 m which was 1.2 m of LSPL axles and 300 mm of wooden blocks.
9. Since the load out was to happen with stools, the modules were first transported to port about 10 days in advance where the cargo was stored on stools, stools were welded for stowing on the barge. This would help the ship to achieve a faster turnaround and more safety for continuous operation.
The transport arrangement being unique for each equipment taking account of the various safety modalities of wind force due to module heights, stability of the modules, route per axle load and the port per sq. mt deck load. During the transport, LSPL mobilised a total of 120 self-propelled axles with 5 PPUs as the transport required axles in various configuration as seen in chart above.
The FGSG modules were the heaviest ever to be transported in Mundra weighing at 1,200 tons over the Nevinal canal.
For the first time in India, 5 files trailers (2½ axles) were used for transport of cargo in India as the UB modules were heavy in the centre and required to spread load for safe transport.
The HRSG modules the tallest ever were very slender and the height of the modules was 22 m requiring extension of transport beam such that the width of the module was increased for safe transport.
The client nominated 3 vessels first in April and second in October 2019. For the first vessel, a total of 7 modules were to be loaded out, second vessel was to carry 5 modules, and third vessel 6 modules. The operation was planned such that each day 1 module would be loaded in stern on position and then for the few modules the ship would wait for the CB berth to load the equipment.
