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Belco - Stripping Tower
Belco Manufacturing delivered a stripping tower and an absorber tower to Woodward Iodine Corporation (WIC) for its iodine production process. Each packed column is 13.5 feet in diameter and 65 - 68 feet tall, weighing in at more than 37,000 lbs a piece! The stripping column, which operates near 140° F (60° C), is where the iodine is blown out overhead as a gas. The vapor is channeled through 60 feet of fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) duct and then captured in the absorber tower which extracts the iodine as iodine liquor. Both units run at an acid pH of three or less. The resulting iodine liquor is further processed to convert it to elemental iodine.
The two companies were first introduced in (he mid 1980s when WIC was upgrading its facility. At the time WIC was looking for a new tank to replace a failing acid-proof brick tank. Replacing the tank with the original brick material was prohibitively expensive so WIC turned to Belco, who recommended an FRP tank made with Ashland Inc/s HETRON® 197 resin. According to Greg Mitchell, General Foreman at WIC, "Stainless steel wouldn`t last 30 seconds in this environment. This tank holds some of the nastiest products and there`s not one leak on it with HETRON resin."
Mitchell was so impressed with the performance of FRP in this application that he ordered two more acid tanks from Belco in 1998 - this time fabricated with Ashland`s DERAKANE® 470 epoxy vinyl ester resin. Mitchell went on to say, "The Belco guys are very easy to work with. When you find a manufacturer with this level of caliber and commitment from the engineering department to the CEO, everything just runs fine. If I need another tank, they`re the first people I`m going to call."
Belco felt much the same way about WIC. According to Doug Preston, RE., Belco Engineering Manager, "WIC understands what it takes to do a project like this. We went there and visited them twice. And they came here and met with us twice. Communication was the key."
Belco is very well suited to this kind of custom fabrication. The company has more than 100 years of combined FRP experience amongst the operations staff - including Preston`s 22 years experience in designing FRP vessels for corrosion service. Preston points out, "Belco has complete computer-aided design (CAD) and finite element analysis (FEA) capabilities on-site along with a number of PE`s for design." Steve Macy, Belco President, adds, "Belco is also accredited to carry the ASME RTP-1 label. Our company can handle large projects like this without disruption because of a large labor force (160 people) that possesses a real can-do attitude. Our crews are very experienced and people can readily be shifted to where they are needed."