To keep up with rapid growth in passengers & fuel demand, the BNA Fuel Farm has undertaken several improvement projects in recent years, which were constructed by Meccon Industries, Inc. Currier & Co. was selected by Meccon, BNAFuel and Menzies Aviation to perform the Design and Construction Administration for the Filter Train “C” & MOV Additions using the Design-Build project delivery method. Currier (Paul Wells & Jon Currier) helped mitigate inbound pipeline supply fuel quality issues, and successfully extended the lifespan of pipeline receipt haypack, and prefilter elements.
In 2018, Meccon-Currier Design-Build Team provided the BNA fuel facility with a separate 1,000 GPM truck receipt filter train. The DB Team engineers and construction PM met to conducted field evaluations. While onsite experts in both engineering and construction were able to conceptualize the exact scope of work, new system elements, and their layout, and the integration of the new controls into the existing control system. This initial meeting with the Meccon-Currier DB Team set the table for a very streamlined design, permitting and construction process. Currier completed the design in 4-month, and Meccon successfully permitted the project through the City with zero plan check comments. As a result of the DB Team’s close coordination during the design phase, the project has experienced a very efficient submittal process, with only 2 of 26 submittals being ‘rejected’ and the remainder being ‘approved’ or ‘approved as noted’ upon their first submission. Currently, the project is mid-way through construction and only one RFI and zero change orders have been issued. The project was completed under budget in November 2019.
The BNA Fuel Facility is supplied via a breakout off of the Colonial multiproduct pipeline system, which in recent years has been delivering fuel-laden with very fine metal particulate. As a result, the two ‘leading’ haypack filter vessels, which are the first stage of filtration for pipeline receipt, were experiencing failure within three-weeks of replacement. Similarly, the prefilters were also clogged in very short timeframes, sometimes on their first receipt. To avoid this ongoing cost, Paul Wells, Currier’s Fuel Quality Expert, and Jon Currier investigated the situation in the field and Paul worked for a period of time with Menzies to test alternative methods of removing the metal before entering the BNA Haypacks and Prefilters. In addition, Paul suggested that Menzies change the Prefilter cartridges (relative tightness) to spread the burden among all the receipt filters to extend their useful lives. After these modifications, the life of the hay-pack elements has been extended to greater than 8-months and the Prefilters to greater than 4-months.
Prior to the owner deciding if they would like to install a large 1,200 GPM magnetic particle separator vessel (which is not typical within aviation but is in the pipeline industry) upstream of the pipeline receipt filters, the Meccon-Currier Design-Build team including Menzies tested a small 200 GPM magnetic particle separator. The results were very successful, and the separator effectively removed a respectively large amount of metal particulate. Based on these results, the Owner opted to include the large unit and Currier and Meccon have demonstrated that the lifespan of the filter elements dramatically increased.
