Upon the closing of the land acquisition, a three-month site preparation project will begin as will LianDi’s design of its manufacturing facility.
The completion of the new facility will be accomplished in two major phases: Phase I includes the installation of major utility infrastructure, which includes water, gas and electricity supply and Phase II includes the construction of the manufacturing facility.
Phase I is expected to be completed by the end of 2010. Production is expected to begin by the third quarter calendar year 2011, with five initial shipments of unheading units planned for the first full year of production, which is expected to contribute at least $10m in revenues for the company’s fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.
LianDi is engaged in modernizing delayed coking in China’s oil refining industry and plans to install clean and safe enclosed unheading units in China in the first quarter of 2011.
Delayed coking is a thermal process that breaks heavy crude oil into lighter, more valuable fluids which are captured, while a solid coal-like byproduct called ‘coke’ remains in the drum. Unheading units are used in delayed coking to ‘unhead’ or open the coke drum for the removal of the residual coke.
The company said that due to the extreme temperatures required in the process, unheading can be one of the most hazardous refinery operations. Despite the related hazards, delayed coking is the preferred solution for refining inferior domestic and imported crude oil.
LianDi, in conjunction with DeltaValve, has developed an environmental friendly enclosed coke-drum unheading system for the Chinese marketplace. The clean-technology solution is fully automated and provides significant advantages over other available unheading equipment because it eliminates exposure to workers and the environment, according to LianDi.
Installation of LianDi’s enclosed unheading units can also generate significant economic benefits to oil refiners, both in terms of cost savings through higher operating efficiencies as well as tax incentives for energy saving, environmentally friendly technologies, the company claims.
