Plant Dismantlement & Relocation Solutions Case Studies

Project Background and Scope Phoenix purchased a 1.5 MMGPY ethanol recovery unit located at the Coors Brewery’s production facility in Golden, Colorado. The plant and equipment owner was required to remove it from the brewery as it was no longer required for the site process. Phoenix dismantled the unit and transported it to a storage site in Texas. The unit is designed to recover ethanol from waste liquids containing alcohol such as spilled or out-of-date beer, as well as residual streams from ethanol plants. Phoenix developed a buyer who was expanding their whisky distillery capacity. The buyer jumped at this opportunity, quickly securing the unit through a deposit and deploying a team for due diligence and inspection. Immediately after the inspection, the buyer issued a purchase order. Phoenix managed the shipment, inland and ocean freight, of the unit and all equipment to the port in Ireland.Highlights Of The ProjectTimeframe: April 2022 - August 2022Service: Plant Acquisition and RelocationValue: $500,000.00Project Outcome The unit was built in 2018 and had been operated till 2019. Phoenix removed the unit according to the Coors Brewery timeline. Phoenix’s buyer successfully received the unit in just a few months and significantly reduced their capital investment compared to purchasing new fabrication unit.

Western Electric’s plant in Kearny, New Jersey was closed and sold for re-development years ago. The developer determined that the site’s main powerhouse/substation buildings would be obsolete in the site’s future and over the years removed all boilers, ducts and miscellaneous equipment from the powerhouse’s interior. In April of 2015, the developer decided to completely demolish the powerhouse and substation buildings. The powerhouse was a 100’ x 100’ x 100’ high steel framed structure with brick exterior walls, a poured in place concrete floor supported  by steel approximately 18’ above grade and a concrete/steel coal bunker running east to west and hung from the roof steel approximately 25’ wide by 90’ long. Atop the powerhouse’s roof were (2) 20’ diameter by 200’ high redial brick chimneys. The main substation was a 65’ x 120’ x 2’ steel frame structure with brick walls and concrete and steel arches. The substation’s south wall was a party wall with the powerhouse’s north wall. A 28’ wide driveway, east of the (2) buildings, separated the buildings from an active warehouse structure (the driveway was the emergency exit for the warehouse). North of the substation, a 45’ wide driveway separated another warehouse from the project.  90’ west of the buildings was the Hackensack River while underground water and gas lines serving the site were south of the powerhouse. Implosion was not an option for this project.   Solution Phoenix Equipment Corporation was selected because:   Our experienced management personnel devised a demolition methodology that greatly reduced the project’s cost. Phoenix’s ability to obtain and manage safe/competent subcontractors for the project (i.e. Asbestos abatement, manual demolition of chimneys, site production (i.e. roof coverage, sidewalk bridges, scaffolding, etc.). Phoenix’s ability to deal with local, state and federal agencies which might get involved with the project.   While waiting for the actual permits to demolish the buildings, our team performed the following work:   Abate remaining asbestos in both buildings. Covered roofs of both warehouse operations with insulation board, covered by tires and topped with 2” thick decking. Erected a sidewalk bridge in north and east driveways to protect emergency exits from warehouses. Opened bottoms of both 200’ high brick chimneys.    Once the demolition permits had been obtained, Phoenix performed the following work:   Demolish both radial brick chimneys to the powerhouse’s roof, using a scaffold attached to the chimneys as a work platform and the chimneys as their own chutes. Using excavators attached with shears and grapples, the substation was demolished to grade. Using manlifts as work platforms, we sectionalized the powerhouse and dropped or pulled sections into our work area.  The largest pulled section weighed approximately 800 tons. Set up an owner revised dewatering set-up at the site (Baker tanks, 6” pumps and hoses). Removed building basement slabs and foundations as low as possible based on the dewatering set-up’s ability to handle ground and river water. Crushed masonry materials to 1”+ and left on site.   The project yielded: 2,500 Tons Scrap Steel 50,000 Pounds copper cable 23,000 Tons - masonry (crushed and left on-site)

Phoenix Equipment, in conjunction with a dismantlement partner, acquired for resale a 4.25 MW cogeneration plant from Montclair State University that was being replaced by a larger unit.  We sold the entire plant, including 4 MW Centaur 50 Solar gas turbine, HRSG, steam boiler, deaerator boiler feed water pumps, water filtration system, fire system, controls and all other components loaded to truck to one buyer for re-use at another location. The buyer acquired the plant and machinery for re-use in a new cogeneration plant at an ethanol plant. The new site is using the plant to generate 4.25 MW of electricty and 24,000 pounds per hour of 150 psi steam for their process.   Take-Aways The University was paid for an obsolete asset and avoided the liability of having to pay someone to remove the cogeneration plant - which was inside a building and locating in an area with very limited mobility. The University received a gutted, broom clean building, and today uses it for a student art gallery The buyer and ethanol plant obtained a good used cogeneration plant with all associated parts for a fraction of the cost of buying a new equipment.

A major North American petro-chemical company, Nova Chemicals, ceased manufacturing of a certain polystyrene product at its Pennsylvania site due to changing markets.  The polystyrene plant was part of a larger site that had on-going operations.  The site owner wanted to have the entire footprint of the plant removed, as well as other parts of the plant that were no longer utilized.  As part of the complex removal project, our client also wanted to ensure it was receiving the most value for its surplus assets - the plant, equipment, and scrap resulting from the piping and structures.     Our Solution Phoenix Equipment leveraged our ability to purchase and resell chemical process equipment to drastically reduce the cost of the associated demolition, environmental and asbestos abatement work.  Phoenix safely dismantled and rigged out at its own expense over 50 pieces of process equipment for resale, including: (5) 6,000 Gallon Stainless Steel Reactors; (1) 15,000 Gallon Stainless Steel Reactor; (2) Gala Pellet Dryers; (5) Nash Vacuum Pump Skidded Systems; (1) 135 Cu. Ft. Stainless Steel Ribbon Blender and Dozens of Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers and Stainless Pressure Vessels & Tanks. Our experienced team of petrochemical dismantlement and demolition experts safely completed the entire project in just over eight (8) months.  Performing such work within an active plant required an acute attention to detail and highlights our safety record and ability to perform highly complex projects. Prior to dismantling the plant and several other areas within the larger remaining operational site, our company had to perform the asbestos abatement in various areas (work was subcontracted to a licensed abatement company); line break and remove Maleic Anhydride and Styrene from piping after developing safe and cost efficient methodologies to accomplish the removals; and removal and packaging of “Universal Waste” (i.e. fluorescent tubes, ballast, transformer and equipment oils, etc.). Besides some of the routine challenges encountered while performing dismantlement and demolition operations within active remaining plants, we had two major areas of concern that required extensive planning and expertise.   The first area involved taking down a 110’0” high main process building which had a party wall with a remaining one (1) story warehouse.  The process building’s elevator was located within the remaining warehouse, passing thru the warehouse’s roof to service the process building.  Our personnel used a 150 Ton crane to lift off the elevator structure and the upper portions of the process building, utilizing a manlift with a 125’0” high working platform for our personnel to make cuts for the removals. The second major challenge entailed the removal of a deteriorated 135’0” high steel water tower.  The tower was located near two elevated pipe bridges and an active office building, leaving only a 60’0” wide corridor for the tower’s removal.  Our crew first had to cable portions of the weakened tower together prior to using a 300 Ton crane for the actual lift.  Our crew utilized a manlift with a 162’0” working platform. Our crew of 12 utilized a 450 Daewoo excavator equipped with a grapple, a Komatsu PC300 excavator equipped with a shear, 75 ton Grove mobile crane, three (3) 843 Bobcats, a forklift and a lull to demolish the plant and other areas without an incident.  We also crushed the masonry materials created by our work to 2” minus and spread the material over the site, which alleviated the need to import gravel and saved our client substantial amount of money. We completed the entire project on time and on budget, and most importantly without any safety incidents.

Sunoco Chemical closed its aniline plant in 2001 due to changing markets.  The aniline plant was located within a larger facility that still operated several other chemical process plants.  As part of a corporate initiative to exit non-core businesses, the entire site was put up for sale.  However, prior selling the entire site, our client wanted to remove all assets associated with the non-operating portions of the site, which included the aniline plant as well as a thermal oxidizer area, boiler area, exhaust stack area and boneyard.   Our Solution   Asset Recovery / Sales Plan Phoenix Equipment paid Sunoco for the plant and equipment and performed all removal and dismantlement work at no cost to Sunoco.  Phoenix Equipment was able to pay Sunoco and perform the entire scope of dismantlement and environmental work by leveraging our ability to purchase and resell chemical process equipment far beyond inherent scrap value.  Phoenix safely dismantled and rigged out at its own expense over 45 pieces of process equipment for resale, including: (4) 90,000 gallon bullet tanks - 250 psi; Multi-Stage Pfaulder Wiped Film Evaporator System; Ammonia Recovery System; Riley Stoker Boiler System; Callidus Technologies Thermal Oxidizer System; (2) Stainless Steel Scrubbing Systems; Stainless Steel and Carbon Steel Packed and Tray Columns; (25+) Vertical and Horizontal Stainless Steel and Carbon Steel Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers.   Asset Recovery Summary 45+ Pieces of Process Equipment 1,000,000 lbs+ of Non-ferrous material 2500 Ton+ of Carbon Steel   Dismantlement Work The various areas removed in our asset recovery work at the plant presented numerous problems which had to be solved safely and economically by our company. The Aniline Plant covering over 80,000 square feet of space had been shut down over 10 years ago, including the closure of water and chemical sewers in the area.  The plant records showed that the equipment and piping had been cleaned but an Alumina pellet catalyst might remain in two reactors and residue might remain in several heat exchangers.  Phoenix could not verify the extent of the areas clean-up operation from 10 years prior so we set-up an equipment/piping clean-up area within the Aniline Area, set up water to the clean-up area, and we connected the clean-up area to the active chemical sewer in an adjacent active area. Using appropriate PPE, our workers performed line breaks of the piping at the equipment connections and low points, moving the equipment (i.e. columns, heat exchangers, etc.) and piping to the clean-up area as necessary.  The two reactors in the Aniline Area did contain Alumina catalyst which we had tested.  Through our contacts, we were able to find a recycler for the catalyst instead of expensive landfilling saving significant money. The four 90,000 gallon bullet tanks we removed were in a diked area surrounded by soft earth.  Our PE designed a cost effective dunnage system allowing our crane to sit close enough for safe and economical lifts. The area housing the Riley-Stokes Boiler system also contained a 150’0” high column to be removed.  The area was surrounded by elevated active pipe bridges and an active tank storage area.  Sparks emanating from our cutting operations had to be minimized.  Phoenix devised a system to contain the sparks and using a man-lift and a 300 Ton crane we dismantled the column. The Thermal Oxidizer was located beneath a remaining steel structure which supported active equipment and piping. The Oxidizer had to be sectionalized and carefully removed. Our 10 person crew spent seven months at the Ohio plant to safely perform the project without any injury or incident.  Phoenix utilized a Komatsu PC400 Excavator equipped with a shear, a Komatsu PC300 Excavator equipped with a grapple, various cranes ranging from 65 Tons to 500 Tons, various man-lifts, skid steer dozers and forklifts.  Our crew worked with the plant’s employees to time our operations in the plant’s active areas.   Dismantlement Summary Process Equipment and Piping Rinsing Catalyst Recovery Equipment Rigging Plant Dismantlement and Demolition Scrap Recycling