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Al Nouran sugar factory: commissioning completed in spring

The scope of our contract for construction of the new Egyptian Al Nouran sugar factory for Al Sharkiya Sugar Manufacturing (ASSM) is such that we have reported on its progress in several issues of BMA Info. Now, commissioning of the factory has just been completed.
 

Our contract comprises supply of the core components for sugar production and engineering. Based on our basic and detailed engineering, the factory has been designed to process 12,000 t/d of beet during the beet campaign and 2,000 t/d  of raw sugar in refinery operation. 

From the North Sea to the Mediterranean

The equipment was shipped from the port of Hamburg to Alexandria, in 14 break bulk shipments comprising 98 containers and 32 separate items, with a total weight of roughly 1,350 tons. For manufacture by the customer, we supplied 2,500 workshop drawings with parts lists.

Once the earthworks and foundations had been completed, construction of the steel structures and assembly of the equipment started, in late 2016. In inspections, experts from BMA ensured that this work and all other manufacturing steps were of the required quality. 

Thousands of pipes and isometric drawings

While the mechanical equipment was being assembled, the pipes were prefabricated, based on piping engineering from BMA. We prepared routing plans for 6,000 pipes and 3,750 isometric drawings for manufacturing. For assembly reasons, the pipes with larger diameters had been prefabricated and installed with the main equipment.

Last year, we completed all mechanical and piping assembly tasks. The electrical work and the installation and connection of M&C equipment were done as well. After the cold water test runs, the appa
ratus and pipes were insulated, which was followed by the mechanical equipment tests.

This spring then, the plant was commissioned: sugar beet processing was started first, which will be followed, after a number of changes, by refinery operation. 

Close collaboration with our customer

Our customer’s staff received support during the commissioning of the new plant from a team of BMA engineers, who also provided the appropriate training. We supervised start-up of the plant and optimised operation in collaboration with our customer.

In a final step, the performance test runs were conducted for all parts of the system and the complete plant. Afterwards, the factory was handed off to the customer.
 

Al Nouran I

Our engineering for Al Nouran:

  • List of equipment incl. specifications
  • Mass and heat balances
  • P&I diagrams
  • Layout and load plans
  • Process descriptions
  • Piping engineering
  • Electrical engineering and M&C

 

Al Nouran II

Supplies for the stations:

  • Extraction (countercurrent cossette mixer, extraction tower, 4 cossette pumps)
  • Condensate system (condensate flash tank)
  • Sugar house (9 batch vacuum pans, 7 E1810 and 12 K3300 centrifugals, 2 vertical vacuum pans, 4 OVC, massecuite pumps, slurry mill)
  • Condensation (vacuum pumps
  • Sugar drying (drum dryer, flu­idised-bed cooler)
  • Packaging (storage silos)
  • Raw sugar melting (melters, screening machines)

In addition to the core components, BMA has also supplied a range of conveyor elements, pumps, plate heat exchangers and agitators.