Weir Pumps has won a multi-million dollar contract to replace existing pumps at the Cantarell nitrogen generation complex located in Ciduad del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico. The Cantarell nitrogen generation complex located in Ciduad del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico, includes the world’s largest nitrogen plant. Owned and operated by a consortium led by BOC Gases, it has a daily capacity of 1200 million standard cubic feet of high purity nitrogen and a 400 megawatt combined cycle power plant. On the Gulf of Mexico, towards the bottom of the Yucatan peninsula, the plant, with its associated weather patterns, presents unique problems for the facility’s 13 tower, 26 cell condenser-cooling water system. Concentrations of suspended solids introduced through the seawater make-up system range from a low of 200-800PPM to a high during hurricane season of 60,000 PPM. Failure due to erosion and corrosion of critical metallic components within the system had been occurring at an alarming rate.
After a successful upgrade of the original, severely eroded condenser tubes to superduplex ZERON 100 by Weir Materials, BOC Gases considered upgrading their main cooling water pumps and beach mounted seawater make-up pumps. The proposed vertical pumps included mechanical design features well suited for the application as well as a Weir Pumps designed bearing lubrication system with integral filtration capacity to remove sand from the seawater before being injected into the pump bearings. All wetted components were to be manufactured from Weir’s proprietary super duplex stainless steel material, ZERON 100.
