Each furnace module is about 15 stories (50mt) tall and weighs over 2,000 tons, the equivalent of the combined take-off weight of five Boeing 747 airplanes. Employing ExxonMobil’s furnace technology, the furnaces are part of a feed-flexible steam cracker that will have an ethylene production capacity of one million tons per year.
Georges Grosliere, venture executive, ExxonMobil Chemical Company, said: “The safe completion and movement of these furnaces illustrate the scale of this petrochemical project. This large and complex project requires an extraordinary level of coordination of its numerous components.”
Engineering work for the furnace modules took 19 months and was carried out in France and Japan and completed in late 2008. A multi-functional heavy transport vessel, the RollDock Sun was selected to ship the furnace modules from Thailand to Singapore.
ExxonMobil’s second petrochemical project in Singapore includes a world-scale steam cracker and associated derivative units – including new polyethylene, polypropylene and specialty elastomers plants, an aromatics extraction unit, and oxo alcohol expansion. The anticipated mechanical completion and start-up activities for the new facilities will be phased in beginning in late 2010 through 2011.
