The Braddock, Pennsylvania plant underwent a major $39 million refurbishment over 54 days that involved 107,000 employee hours and 400 contractors. Major work included overhauling the main air compressors and replacing heat exchangers and purification vessels. Safety was a top priority, and the project was completed with only one minor medical treatment. The extensive planning and contributions of many teams enabled customers' demands to be met during the outage through deliveries from alternative plants. The successful project renewed the plant's contract for another 15 years.

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A section of the main air compressor being lifted into position.
The impressive Braddock relife, by the numbers
Though it succeeded because of the work of many people, the scale of the recent total
refurbishment of the Braddock, Pennsylvania plant is best described with some impressive
numbers:
• $39 million budget
• 107,000 employee hours
• 54 days shut down for the work
• 400 contractors
• Eight cranes used for multiple major lifts of equipment ranging in weights from 15 to 40 tons
• Only one recordable medical treatment case: A worker received medication for perlite dust in
the eye
• Over 40,000 tons of LOX and LIN delivered to U.S. Steel from alternative Linde plants during
the outage
• More than 25,000 tons of liquid oxygen and liquid argon delivered to Braddock liquid customers
during the outage from other Linde plants
• Seventy-four additional transport trucks and drivers used to support the demand from US Steel
and the liquid customers
Bob Schluter, principal project manager for the job, said planning for the relife project started in
2010. The scope included a complete plant upgrade that would result in improved reliability and
efficiency, making it ready for a renewed 15-year contract with U.S. Steel.
The work took place in stages, including the addition of a new nitrogen product compressor in
2013, conversion of the process control system to a newer Siemens system in the fall of 2014
and the major outage work, which began on March 18 and was completed on May 10. All
remaining work, including painting, is scheduled to be completed by the fall.
Safety efforts focused on leading behaviors such as gathering observations, coaching, teaching,
sharing good catches and promoting positive behaviors, said Schluter.
Rob Brown, head of Supply Chain Planning, noted that many customers in the East and Midwest
regions had to be supplied from alternate plants to support the large liquid demand in the
Pittsburgh area. For example, the company shipped argon from the new La Porte, Texas plant to
serve customers throughout the country via truck and railed product to Arroyo, West Virginia as
well. The company also sourced product from Delta, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; Braddock,
Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware.
“Energy negotiated a special rate to allow for the extra Arroyo and Fostoria production,” said
Brown. “Thanks to principal Linde ASU source plants (particularly Fostoria, Delta, Arroyo, and La
Porte) for the extra production and loading support and thanks to transport operations at plants in
the Midwest and East (particularly Braddock, Arroyo), National Scheduling Center, Transport
platform, Energy Solutions Operators, and Supply Chain Planning.”
Major work included the complete overhaul of the 34,000 HP main air compressor and a 24,000
HP booster air compressor, replacing the internals of the pre-purification vessels that remove
moisture and carbon dioxide before the air enters the cryogenic part of the process and
replacement of eight of 12 main heat exchangers in the cold box – which required emptying the
cold box of 170,000 cubic feet of perlite and significant structural modifications for removal of the
old heat exchangers. There was plenty of other work as well.
“The entire Supply team worked closely together to supply our pipeline and liquid customers,”
said Brown. “By focusing on our customers we were able to provide uninterrupted supply during
the outage. The project team did a fantastic job with the restart of the plant which was vital to the
continued supply of our bulk and tonnage customers in the Pittsburgh area.”
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2. RAS groups that were key contributors were Project Execution: Operations; Reliability;
Instruments & Controls; Machinery; Electrical; Butler Warehouse Operations and Procurement.
One of eight new main heat exchangers finds its new home at the cold box.
“I would like to congratulate the entire Supply team for successfully executing the Braddock
turnaround,” said Kenn Flessner, head of Regional Operations, Americas. “This plant is
extremely critical to the supply of many customers and an important profit contributor to Linde. It
takes the contribution and dedication of a lot of people to make this a success, from the project
team, the local and regional operations team, the supply chain planning team, Chris Cochran,
who managed the interface with US Steel, and our drivers. I would like to specifically recognize
Bob for his contribution during this project, especially his visible safety leadership while the work
progressed. Bob did an excellent job planning safety into the job from the beginning and stopped
work when necessary to address new risks. A truly outstanding job by all.”
Neil Richards, head of Supply East and Midwest, said that with so many people involved in such
a complex project, “our primary goal was that we all ended the project healthy. We did have a
number of minor incidents during the execution of the project, but none resulted in any serious
injuries and the team ensured that we immediately learned from each incident and put in place
mitigations to prevent a reoccurrence. I am confident that we will take these lessons forward to
ensure that we learn from them and never repeat them again."
Linde InSight Weekly - June 17, 2015 - Company Confidential
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