WELCOME TO PRESENTATION

COOLING TOWER MEET - JUNE 2008,

GNFC - BHARUCH

FAILURE OF COOLING TOWERS AND REMEDIAL STRATEGIES

P M VAGRECHA ( DGM - Ammonia Gr ) ,

N M PANDYA ( Sr Mgr - Civil )
GUJARAT STATE FERTILIZERS & CHEMICALS LTD
E-mail: pmvagrecha@gsfcltd.com
Mob : 09979853418

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 GSFC BACKGROUND

• GSFC is one of the India’s largest integrated Fertilizers and Petrochemical

complex located at Fertilizernagar, Vadodara
• Established in year 1965 - Four decades of operations
• Diversified product portfolio ranging from Fertilizers, Caprolactam, Nylon 6,
Melamine, Industrial gases, Plastics and Polymers
• Pioneers in producing Caprolactam, Melamine, MEK-Oxime and premium
quality liquid Argon
• Ammonia is one of the major raw material for production of various
chemicals
• GSFC is operating 1350 MTPD Ammonia-IV plant since 1998
• The plant is having highest capacity ( 20,000 m3/h ) Cooling tower of the
complex with seven cells each of 40’ x 18’ fill area

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 IMPORTANCE OF COOLING TOWER

• Cooling Tower is important for Chemical industries. It is core element of the

plant like blood circulation network of human body
• For start up of any plant, the first activity is cooling tower operations and
while shut down the last section to be stopped is cooling tower
• Any interruption in operations will lead to stoppage of plant and hence
cooling tower has to remain healthy like human heart
• Normally cooling tower operations are neglected even though it is an
important equipment of plant

The benefits of healthy operation of cooling tower are :

• Reduction of power consumption
• Prevention of equipment / heat exchanger failures
• Reduction of breakdown and planned shutdowns
• Efficient plant operation
• Reduction in makeup water quantity
• Collapse of cooling tower is analogous to heart failure

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 HISTORY OF COOLING TOWER FAILURES

• Cooling towers have been in operation since decades in Chemical

industries but total collapse of cooling tower was unheard of upto 2001.

• Since than repeated failures are reported.

• Industries / insurance companies have lost huge amounts due to the

same. Such incidents in other countries are significantly less.

• There is difference in CT constructions in other countries.

• This is the time to analyse the problem and take corrective actions.

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 LIST OF COOLING TOWER COLLAPSES

Failures of few large size cooling towers are listed below :

NO ORGANIZATION PLANT/CELL HEADER COMMISSIONED COLLAPSED

1 NAGARJUNA FERT Amm 1998 Aug-01

2 INDO GULF FERT Amm / 6 1988 23-Apr-02

3 GSFC, VADODARA Amm-IV / 7 42/30 1995 03-Jun-05

4 RCF, THAL Amm / 5 42/20 22-Feb-06

5 IFFCO, PHULPUR Amm-II / 7 52/30 1997 11-Apr-06

6 IFFCO, AONALA Amm-II / 6 52/42/36 1996 18-Jun-07

7 NFL, VIJAPUR Urea-II / 5 - 1997 18-Jun-07

8 GNFC, BHARUCH Nitro Phos / 5 - 1990 08-Jun-07

9 RIL, HAZIRA Cracker / 12 Dec-07

10 VIKRAM ISPAT

11 ISPAT INDUSTRIES

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 COOLING TOWER COLLAPSE EVENT AT GSFC

• Ammonia-IV plant was operating normal at 109 % load

• On Jun 03, 2005 at 19:45 hrs field operator noticed collapse of south side
structure of Cooling tower from one end
• Safe shutdown of plant with spillage of water was taken
• CW Return header fell down from height of ~13 m
• Collapsed header further damaged the 42” diameter riser pipe at ground level
• Complete south side wooden structure with partition walls fell down. The north
side cooling tower with all seven fans were intact
• Spillage of water reduced by physically diverting the water and continuous
water make up from various sources
• Operation of one cooling tower pump continued with loss of minor water. ASU
operations continued

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 DECISIONS TAKEN

• Due to non-availability of cooling water, continuing operation of Amm-IV

plant was not possible
• The collapsed cooling tower was required to be erected along with CW
return header piping
• For these repairs the large quantity of CT internals were to be arranged
which would have taken at least twenty days time
• Complete erection of only one side, would have required two months period
• Stoppage of Ammonia plant would have resulted into huge losses as
downstream consumer plants are receiving different intermediates from
Ammonia plant
• It was decided to continue operation of plant at 60 % load with one side of
cooling tower in line and simultaneously repair of collapsed side was taken
up as all fans were intact
• It was also decided to renovate the intact side of cooling tower after repair
of collapsed side
• Cooling tower suppliers were summoned. Based on inspection at site the offers

for re-erection received. LOI was issued in three days. 7

 ACTIONS TAKEN

• The remaining intact portion of cooling tower along with fan assembly were
inspected for operability. Additional strengthening where ever required was
provided
• To safeguard the remaining intact tower, the return header running through
top of the cooling tower deck was shifted to ground levels to increase the
reliability of one side operation. CW feed to individual cells was given from
bottom header with help of riser pipes
• The header for collapsed side was provided with isolation valve
• Southern part of cooling tower was covered with tarpaulin sheets to avoid
short circuiting of air flow and to obtain required cooling for partial operations
of CT. Approach of CW to the tune of 5 O C could be achieved
• The fabrication of bottom header with riser pipes could be completed within
13 days period. CT shutdown was taken for provision of isolation valves and
on 16th day, CT part operation / Ammonia productions could be established
• Erection of cells in phased manner and increase in plant loads continued
• Complete CT operations could be resumed after two and half months period

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 CHRONOLOGICAL ACTIVITES FOR RE-ERECTION

NO ACTIVITIES FROM DATE TO DATE TIME TAKEN

1 Damage to south side of A-IV CT 03/06/2005 - 0

2 Visit of Agencies - PCT / SCT etc 04/06/2005 06/06/2005 2
3 Discussion with parties 04/06/2005 05/06/2005 1
4 LOI placed on M/s PCT 06/06/2005 - 0
5 Removal of damaged part 07/06/2005 16/06/2005 9
6 Covering of six cells with plastic 09/06/2005 12/06/2005 3
7 Pipe supports on south side for header 09/06/2005 14/06/2005 5
8 Lifting of header on south side 11/06/2005 - 0
9 S/D of plant for basin cleaning 14/06/2005 16/06/2005 2
10 Total basin cleaned and refilled 14/06/2005 16/06/2005 2
11 Engineer from PCT at site 16/06/2005 - 0

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 CHRONOLOGICAL ACTIVITES FOR RE-ERECTION

NO ACTIVITIES FROM DATE TO DATE TIME TAKEN

12 Material receipt sequential 17/06/2005 22/07/2005 35

13 Pipe supports on north side for header 17/06/2005 15/07/2005 28
14 Actual rebuilding work start & completed 19/06/2005 27/07/2005 38
15 First cell rebuilding 19/06/2205 08/07/2005 19
16 Second cell rebuilding 06/07/2005 14/07/2005 8
17 Third cell rebuilding 09/07/2005 17/07/2005 8
18 Fourth cell rebuilding 12/07/2005 21/07/2005 9
19 Fifth cell rebuilding 15/07/2005 24/07/2005 9
20 Sixth cell rebuilding 18/07/2005 27/07/2005 9
21 Seventh cell rebuilding 21/07/2005 27/07/2005 6
22 Total time taken from damage to restart 03/06/2005 27/07/2005 54
23 Total time taken from W Order to restart 06/06/2005 27/07/2005 51

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 RE-ERECTION AT A GLANCE

NO ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS QUANTUM UNIT

1 Total labour deployed for cleaning / helping PCT 1200 Mandays
2 Total tractor trips removed as debris from 7 cells 320 Trips
3 Total structural works for header supports - 14 19 MT
headers and one walkway
4 Toal wood work as per BOQ 6400 ft3
5 Toal plywood work as per BOQ 6885 ft2
6 Toal PVC ' V ' bars 22000 Nos
7 Total hardware material 3325 kgs
8 Toatl AC sheets 1850 m2
9 Total manpower deployed by M/s PCT including
consideration of working in night as one additional
manday above day time

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 SIMILARITIES OBSERVED IN FAILURES

• All cooling tower failures have occurred in fertilizer plant.

• Mostly all collapses have been towards pump side.
• Majority failures have been in & around June.
• All failures of CT constructed in & around 1996.
• Collapse is just from besides the eliminator blades.

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 PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE MEASURES

• Monitoring of vibrations of fans ( Monthly )

• Preventive maintenance of fan, gear box and motors ( Yearly )
• Corrosion monitoring of header at regular intervals
• Inspection of cooling tower structure during annual shutdowns & replacement

of structural members before their failure

• Fabrication of wood at site should be avoided
• Use of SS bolts instead of HDG
• Regular checking of gas leaks in cooling water
• Wetting of cooling tower during non-operation
• Cleaning of decks / nozzles on regular basis
• Need based painting of structures / piping
• Wrapping / coating of headers at ground levels
• Provision of gas detectors on cooling tower top

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THANK YOU

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