How do you remove a refractory concrete cladding with a pressure strength of 190 N/mm2 from an installation with a diameter of 800 – 1000 millimetres?

Petrobrazi Refinery (Romania) was looking for a quick method to remove extremely hard refractory concrete from a hydrocracker. Until recently, this kind of demolition work was performed through manual scabbling: a deployment of four months of 24/7 continuous shifts in very difficult conditions. Specifically for Petrobrazi, ADS developed a revolutionary method that allowed us to get the same job done in just two weeks! This resulted in massive savings for the client. Not just in terms of man hours, but also in terms of the strongly reduced downtime of the installation.

How did we make the seemingly impossible possible? By linking multiple high-pressure units together, we were able to generate an enormous force that removed the concrete without damaging the steel pipes. Even the existing anchoring could be saved, so that the client was able to install new refractory concrete cladding without further pre-treatment. This unique application resulted in a patent for ADS.