Case study ethylene pilot plant

Expo Technologies

Purge and Pressurization Enclosure

Case Study:Ethylene Pilot Plant

www.expoworldwide.comPurge + Pressurization + Innovation

Watch the Expo Technologies team in action. • This time-lapse video demonstrates weeks of work in just

2 minutes


Client• Our client is a major producer of fine and speciality

chemicals in Germany

Our Experience


Equipment• A small scale ethylene pilot plant purged with nitrogen

within the company’s factory premises


The Challenge• To design a purge and pressurization enclosure to house the

ethylene pilot plant• To build an enclosure that could be dissembled to fit through

factory doors and re-assembled in a Zone 2 hazardous area

Our Experience


The Solution• The purge and pressurized enclosure was designed to

separate into 2 parts, so that it could pass through the factory doors

• The purge system was tailor-made for the enclosure and included features such as:

• Over-sized valves to accommodate low-pressure supply• Automatic change-over of purge gas to a secondary supply• A 2 hour purge timer


The Solution• Additional features included:

• Internal heat exchanger • Reactor vessel, which operates at 600 DegC and 300 bar

• In the event of any rupture or major process line failure, the reactor vessel is protected by a N2 blowdown system


Customer Benefits

• A custom designed system with enhanced safety features

• These safety features allows the client to produce ethylene in a laboratory environment within a Zone 2 hazardous area

Design• The Expo Technologies team used:

• More than 80 sheets of technical drawings in the design of the system

• Parts included:• 52 door locks• 276 stainless steel bosses • 40m of door seal gasket• 26mm thick laminated glass windows



Case study ethylene pilot plant

Engineering