Complex asbestos project Geleen

DDM received the request from a large utility company, which delivers electricity, steam, fuels, nitrogen, air and water to a chemical industrial area, to decontaminate and dismantle an extremely outdated LUVO (air preheater) during the shutdown. We also had to isolate flue gas ducts and decontaminate them where necessary. In November 2018, DDM started with the engineering and preparations for this large, time-critical project. The pre-shutdown decontamination work started in March 2019. The activities were ready well before the shutdown. Too early, within the budget – in spite of additional work! – and with an extremely satisfied customer.

‘We first had to fully isolate the 60-ton LUVO’, says DDM project manager Paul Jorissen. ‘Once that was finished, we could hoist it out with a 500-ton crane and put it on our lay-down area. We subsequently started isolating and decontaminating the flue gas ducts. These are large objects measuring 4 by 4 metres. They contained a number of elements that were not so easy to remove, namely multi-leaf dampers and expansion fittings. But the DDM approach means: we will always find a solution. We completed this job safely and under asbestos conditions. And that delivered a significant gain in time.’

While these activities were in full swing, the client's project leader asked whether DDM could also carry out decontamination work on a parallel project to the heat exchanger before the shutdown. ‘We were given 14 days’, according to Paul Jorissen. ‘Our 25-strong team worked hard on this. It concerned the complex decontamination and dismantling of components, besides the normal decontamination work on valves and such like.’