Taking a cue from the automotive industry, where the joining of the drive train to the body is referred to as the "marriage", the installation of the clean gas stack onto the scrubber - the icing on the cake, as it were - is sometimes called a "marriage" too.
The gigantic dimensions of the component meant that two heavy-duty cranes, each capable of lifting up to 350t, were required. The occasion could be marvelled at within a wide radius of the Rotterdam port area and as far away as the adjacent A15 motorway. The installation took place under difficult conditions, because the already erected structures and ongoing installation work meant that there was very little space to work in.
The flue gas scrubber itself has a diameter of approximately six meters and is around 38 meters high. It was constructed in co-operation with STEULER-KCH out of reinforced concrete/Bekaplast. The stack, fabricated from glass-fibre reinforced plastic, has a diameter of 2.6 metres and rises a dizzying 70 metres into the air. All the ancillary structures, such as monitoring and maintenance platforms on the stack, were installed on the ground prior to the lift.
The installation of the clean gas stack marks an important milestone in the REKO II project, which is naturally being impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis too. Despite all the restrictions, the project team was still able to keep to the overall project timeline.
