Sandvik Materials Technology awarded supply contract for PO green field project in Nanjing, China

09-Jul-14

Sandvik Materials Technology has been awarded the contract to supply specialist heat exchanger tubes to a prestigious chemical green field project in Nanjing, China. More than 400 tonnes of duplex tubes, including both straight and U-bend, are to be supplied and installed at a world-scale Propylene Oxide (PO) production plant with the first quantities being delivered in October 2014 and continuing into the first quarter of 2015. Sandvik is also working closely the engineering team which is providing the technical support for the project and have also attended special technical training sessions at the Zhenjiang tube mill. The production of PO results in a corrosive process environment which can have particularly detrimental effect on carbon steel equipment. Sandvik SAF 2205™ duplex stainless steel tubes were specified for the project due to the fact they are particularly suitable for use in applications involving highly corrosive conditions. The material offers excellent mechanical strength as well as high levels of resistance to general corrosion and other types such as stress corrosion cracking, and pitting and crevice corrosion. Properties of Sandvik SAF 2205 ensure longer life of the tubes, with superior properties to standard stainless steels that have been shown to last for as little as 12 to 18 months in some cases. This in turn means that maintenance time and costs are reduced, with the added benefit of the potential for production downtime being kept to a minimum.