A one-of-a-kind shutdown at Whyalla

In our June edition of The Pipeline, you would’ve read about our first major contract award in Whyalla, a town located 384 kilometres north of Adelaide.

The cold shut has now commenced at the Whyalla Plant, which may sound like business as normal for our maintenance team who regularly deliver shutdown work. However, what makes this project so unique is that a grate upgrade of this scale has never been done before in Whyalla or even – to our knowledge – worldwide.  

Project Manager Scott Lawrence said that it is a big task but that we have the right people on board to get the job done.  

“Ordinarily, a head shaft, tail shaft or a couple of pieces of grate section may have been changed, but for this job, the team is undertaking a unique scope of work in changing and upgrading everything in one hit,” he said.  

“Once completed, the team’s shutdown methodology should be applicable for other facilities around the world due to the limited nature of these largescale shuts.” 

The team are undertaking a complete replacement and upgrade of the facility’s mechanical components.  This includes removing the old head shaft, tail shaft, 126 tonne of grate chain and old furnace sealing, and replacing it with new upgraded versions to increase production targets.  The team will also install and upgrade several other components which support the system, such as additional steelwork, ducting, pneumatic piping, control cabinets and electrical. 

A shut of this scale and in these conditions must be completed as a cold shut, meaning the facility needs to be completely isolated and shutdown. With temperatures ranging from 400 degrees Celsius up to 2400 degrees Celsius across the Pellet Plant building, it is impossible to perform any maintenance, replacement or remediation on the majority of the facility without first shutting it off and allowing it to cool down. 

It takes 72 hours for the facility to cool down from these temperatures and a further 72 hours to heat back up once the works are completed – meaning that shutdowns of this nature don’t come around too often. 

We look forward to hearing more about this one-of-a-kind shutdown.