Alevro, a joint venture between Australian engineering services provider, Monadelphous, and Italian heavy lift specialist, Fagioli, has used an Enerpac EVO System for the synchronous jack-down of three 3,600 tonne LNG compressors at the Pluto LNG onshore facility near Karratha in Western Australia (WA).
Pluto Train 2 will process gas from the Scarborough natural gas field located in the Carnarvon Basin, around 375 km off the coast of WA. Upon completion, Pluto Train 2 will have an LNG capacity of around 5 mill tonnes per annum.
Alevro transported the LNG compressors from the quay via self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs), and using a jack-down process, lowered the compressors onto the foundations with the Enerpac EVO system.
The size and weight of compressors meant that pre-planning was critical for the project, as each compressor is approximately 63 m long, 30 m wide and 30 m high and weighs 3,600 tonnes.
The whole jack-down process was operated by two Enerpac EVO power packs, each operating 24 jacks on 12 hydraulic lines with a power requirement of only 7.5 kw.
“Our first task was to perform the load in operation of the compressor module via SPMT transfer, and then transporting it from the quayside to the prepared on-site foundations which involved 168 Axle lines of SPMTs and eight powerpacks,” explained Tomasz Milewski, Engineering Manager at Alevro.
Operations Manager, Massimiliano Vettrici, led the overall operation amnd said: “Testing the jack-down system was crucial in building confidence for the next stage of the compressor installation, where the Enerpac cylinders would bear the full weight of the compressor module. Additionally, we paid particular attention to module alignment while on SPMTs, as we did not anticipate any movement during the lowering phase, given the numerous jacking points.
”The load transfer from SPMTs to climbing jacks utilised the Enerpac EVO ‘tilting mode’ to align the module with its behaviour onto the SPMTs hydraulic bed.
“The entire jack-down operation, using the Enerpac climbing jacks and EVO systems, went very smoothly. The successful installation of all compressor modules has now established the framework for future jack-downs,” he said.
