Boilermakers execute flawless lift at Trainer Refinery

Last fall, around 2,000 union craftsmen completed a significant, multi-million dollar turnaround at Monroe Energy’s Trainer Refinery, located close to Philadelphia. With 400 Boilermakers on site, Philadelphia Local 13 led the work with Local 28 (Newark, New Jersey) and travelers also onsite for the September shutdown. During the turnaround, Boilermakers executed three impressive 450-ton reactor critical lifts, made possible by one of the largest crawler cranes in the world.

Monroe Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air lines, so one of their main products is jet fuel for the airline’s East Coast operations. Jet fuel production is the reason Monroe Energy purchased the refinery from ConocoPhillips in 2012, after it sat idle for almost a year. As one of only four East Coast refineries, it also produces other products including home heating oil, gasoline and diesel.

The decision to install a new FCC reactor took five years of planning, beginning shortly after the previous shutdown in 2018, according to Monroe’s Vice President of Reliability, Maintenance and Projects Mike Menosky. Planning advanced smoothly working out staffing, the location of the lift and all the hundreds of details that go into installing a new reactor. Even when the specialty crane Monroe planned on using fell through due to a scheduling conflict, the team stepped up and prepared new plans using a different crane less than a year before the reactor’s scheduled installation.

When the day finally came, the crew arrived in the pitch dark of 3 a.m. to dress the new reactor. Boilermakers on site had certainty all would go according to plan, as did Monroe Energy. As Menosky said, “I have some of the best, if not the best, union craftsmen here in the Northeast.”

L-13’s Scott (Red Dragon) Haig, Nooter foreman and one of the signalmen on the ground during the lift, said one of the biggest challenges Boilermakers encountered was managing the heavy rigging required to lift the reactor. Chokers weighed thousands of pounds and shackles were 1,300 pounds each. The rigging was so massive, it required a second crane just to lift the rigging onto the reactor. During the summer, in preparation for the lift, Boilermakers erected and installed a new 75-ton structural steel frame to support the reactor at a new, higher elevation.

Local 13’s Ryan Stauffer, Nooter general foreman, said another challenge during the lift was making sure the reactor went where they wanted without it swinging all over. With two signalmen on each crane, Boilermakers worked in tandem to move the reactor to a vertical position. They then removed the smaller crane’s rigging before proceeding to lift the reactor.

“At that point we secured the unit, made sure it was safe and that there was no one around,” Haig said. “Then we brought the reactor into the unit.”

After the crane eased the reactor down, and Boilermakers positioned it into place, engineers made sure the alignment was correct. Within an hour all the bolts were secured, and the lift was complete.

“Some guys went above and beyond,” Haig said. “That’s what made everything smooth. Everybody doing their job and going above and beyond. Everybody working together as a team.”

Stauffer agreed. “We ended up with a good crew. Everyone worked together and looked out for each other.”

According to Kevin Hughes, a project manager for Nooter, foremen are valuable during a lift as heavy as the reactor. They reviewed the lift plans, understood the rigging and were as prepared as possible. “[Boilermakers] have better experience with heavier lifts,” Hughes said. “The experience is just there with seasoned mechanics that have done this before.”

Monroe Chief Operating Officer Regan Howell said the new reactor is more efficient than the old one, using less catalyst and producing more yield from the same amount of feedstock. It was also designed with one feed nozzle for renewable feedstock and another nozzle for recycled plastic feedstock to be more prepared as the future unfolds. Even before the new reactor, the refinery’s greenhouse gas emissions were trending lower than when the refinery was purchased in 2012.

“We feel like we’re really good at making liquid transportation fuels. When you look at the team here, you’re looking at hundreds of years of experience,” Howell said. “The old [reactor] lasted us 70 years, so we tried to design this for the next 70 years. We think we’re the right people—us and all our partners—to continue to provide energy and transportation fuels for this market.”

Howell said Monroe Energy is grateful for its partnership with the local trades and for the opportunity to produce the fuels the nation needs. He said that hiring local tradespeople will help to ensure that quality people are performing quality work.  

“It’s no question that our local trades bring an unmatched level of talent and attention to detail to the table every day,” Howell said. “Most importantly, they have the same focus on safety that we do. They care about people in the union and want them all to have a long and safe career. The training is good and the craftsmanship—I haven’t seen better.”