Vacuum distillation unit at a refinery in Castellón, Spain.
A 57-m, 10.6-m diameter, 700-ton vacuum distillation tower was pre-insulated with Pyrogel® XTE in Shanghai, barged through a typhoon, and installed in Spain. The material survived the journey and the storm.
Pre-insulate intercontinentally, transport, and survive a typhoon.
A €90M investment to improve operating margins by 20% — the vessel had to be pre-insulated off-site and arrive intact.
- 57-m × 10.6-m, 700-ton vessel. Major refinery investment with no margin for transport damage.
- Pre-insulate in Shanghai, install in Spain. Long-distance transport with weather exposure.
- Required superior CUI defense. Long-term thermal protection critical to the investment thesis.
Pyrogel® XTE survives the journey — including a typhoon.
30 mm of Pyrogel® XTE was applied for thermal protection and CUI defense; transport from Shanghai through a typhoon validated the material’s resilience.
- Pyrogel® XTE for CUI mitigation. Long-term defense in line with the project’s investment horizon.
- Pre-insulation off-site for cost. Vessel insulated in Shanghai at lower local installation cost.
- Versatile, resilient format. Survived a typhoon during sea transport with re-insulation reviewed on arrival.
- Selected by the operator after prior in-region success. Second large vessel insulated for the same operator that year.
€90M project investment supported by the right insulation choice.
Pyrogel® XTE’s combination of CUI defense and transport durability made the off-site pre-insulation workflow feasible — keeping the project’s installation costs low and supporting a 20%-margin-improvement investment in the unit.
Pre-insulating off-site to save cost?
Pyrogel® XTE’s flexible blanket survives long-distance transport without fracturing — Aspen has the case data.