July 1, 2010

New Process Transforms Waste into Product for Controlling Emissions

By Angela Neville, JD

Technical Challenges Faced During the Plant’s Construction

Challenges during plant construction included constraints on the facility’s footprint and the fact that equipment required to process the waste materials forced the design upward rather than outward.

“The biggest technical challenge in the construction of the S300 plant was the delivery and installation of the largest vessel—the crystallizer—as one piece,” Hughes said. “The crystallizer vessel that is almost 60 feet long, 18 foot, 6 inches in diameter, and weighs almost 100 tons was fabricated in Salt Lake City, which is 150 miles away. The crystallizer was transported as one piece to the site, which took three days of transit time on a special heavy haul truck over a circuitous route to avoid passing under any highway overpasses (Figure 5). Once on site, two cranes were required to lift the vessel off the transit truck and then carefully lift the vessel vertically before it was swung into position.”

5. Economical reclamation process. This diagram shows the patent-pending process for manufacturing SOLVAir Select 300. The innovative process remanufactures a waste stream by economically recovering sodium carbonate and transforming it into a market-grade sodium bicarbonate product used to control air emissions. Source: Solvay Chemicals Inc.

The construction team also faced challenges in erecting a building that is almost 200 feet tall, 40 feet wide, and 100 feet long, in part because strong winds last fall made it difficult to install siding on such tall building. In addition, the site is adjacent to an operating chemical plant, which greatly limited crane access from only one side.

Future Expansion Plans

Hughes said Solvay Chemicals intends to expand the S300 manufacturing facility in the future. “The facility was designed and sized with the prospects of an expansion that would double the capacity,” he said. “The timing of the expansion will be driven by the developing demand for the product.”

—Contributed by Angela Neville, JD, POWER’s senior editor.