Godrej ships gigantic equipment for US fertilizer plant

 Mumbai, May 31(IANS): Godrej Process Equipment here completed and shipped a 57-metre tall high pressure/low pressure flash column for a US fertiliser project, being constructed by Egypt’s Orascom, an official said Friday.

The stainless steel clad flash column has carbon steel as a base material and stainless steel internals and is a significant addition to the long list of critical equipment being manufactured by Godrej that are operating in large process plants in the US, said GPE executive vice-president and business head, Allen B. Antao.

The project in US’ Iowa state is a joint effort of Italy’s Tecnimont, which is the engineering procurement construction contractor, Orascom, being the end-user to set up the plant and GPE responsible for the detailed engineering and manufacturing of the HP/LP flash column and secondary performer.

Displaying gigantic proportions, the $3 million column stood a snaky 57 metres in length, with a diameter of 5.5/6.6 metres at various points and weighs around 400 tonnes.

"It was loaded onto a special trailer truck which would transfer it onto a specially chartered heavy lift shipping vessel for its 35-day-long journey to the US," said a company spokesperson.

The contract won against stiff international competition, it took GPE around 14 months to construct the flash column, which would reach the US in one piece.