This shot reminds me that every time I photographed a refinery (from public property, of course), the rent-a-cops were all over me within minutes. I'll guess that it's a cracking tower.
|
I worked in a former Valero Refinery at Delaware City, Delaware for twenty two days in 2011 and was primarily assigned to one of these as a safety officer. They are called Cat Crackers and operate at very high heat levels. The one in Delaware was over seven hundred feet tall and just as in this picture the only thing in that refinery that was taller was the boiler stack. The refinery in Delaware had been shut down for approximately two years. Valero had simply run the facility until it plugged up. When the company I worked for completed another job they moved two of their own safety people to the refinery job and I got to get home for Thanksgiving. The Cat Cracker had developed some thin areas in the steel at the very top. Thus the top was going to be cut off, requiring a new top to be fabricated. I was very sorry that I would not get to see the construction crane that was going to be brought in to lift off the old top and place the new one.They told me that the crane was going to have to be transported by rail due to it's size. To lift and place heavy steel to over seven hundred feet high, even in pieces requires the largest crane in the country !
|
|