TEXAS CITY, USA
Pipe Details
An inoperable valve controlling flow from a secondary fire water pump house.
12-inch carbon steel pipeline
Summary
- An inoperable valve controlling flow to a secondary fire water pump house meant vital repair work could not be completed.
- 12” EZ Valve
- Team of three installers took two hours to install
- No service interruption
- Saved the client $1 to 2 million in shut down lost revenues
A major Texas-based refinery provides significant feedstock flexibility and product diversity to the area’s operations. The plant dates to the early 1900s and following upgrades now produces more than 125,000 barrels per day.
A vital element of any refinery is its ability to be constantly ready to respond to a fire, so when the refinery found an inoperable valve on its 12” carbon steel fire suppression line and was in need of a way to add a valve to their system without shutting down the line, their maintenance and repairs contractor, ISS, suggested installing an AVT EZ Valve.
The inoperable valve was used to isolate a secondary fire water pump house which required repairs and without the AVT EZ Valve, there was no way to isolate the pump house – this meant, to carry out repairs, a portion of the plant would have to be shut down at a cost of $1 to 2million a day.
ISS accessed AVT’s RentEZ program, which enables installing companies to rent the EZ Valve Kit that includes everything needed for installation, including an innovative end milling (EM) machine that mills a 120° slot round the pipe, eliminating the need to cut a coupon or remove a section of the pipeline. This design allows the AVT EZ Valve to be installed under pressure, enabling faster restoration than alternative solutions, preserving pipe integrity, and allowing installation with no need to shut off the water supply. The 4 to 12” kit is rented free of charge when installers commit to purchasing an agreed number of valves thus significantly cutting the up-front cost of install.
ISS’ team of three installers took just two hours to install the valve, reinforcing their decisions to recommend the AVT EZ Valve. The traditional method of installing a valve, along with having to shut off the water, takes between two and three days, needs twice the manpower and heavy install machinery.
The AVT EZ Valve is available from 1.5 to 24” and has been installed in a range of applications from process plants to municipal water lines for more than a decade.
