US Ceramics Proppant Plant
Wrens, GA
From Greenfield to 500 Million Pounds of Product: A Partnership with US Ceramics
To meet product demand for oil and gas industry clients, US Ceramics (formerly Imerys Oilfield Solutions) partnered with Clark Nexsen’s industrial team to design its lightweight ceramic proppant production facilities on a new, 20 acre greenfield site in Wrens, Georgia. Today, this modern, 118,000 square foot (under roof) manufacturing facility processes high quality calcined kaolin clay to produce up to 500 million pounds per year of finished ceramic proppant product.
Our engineers worked with US Ceramics to provide program management assistance and design services for two initial processing lines as well as planning for future production expansion. Ranging from industrial and process engineering services to traditional, building design services, our team provided site selection assistance, cost estimates, process engineering design, process flow diagrams, piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), material balances, and general equipment arrangements in addition to designing a 30,000 square foot building that houses administrative functions, laboratory space, the main control room, warehouse, and additional personnel spaces.
To enable US Ceramics plant operators to access detailed production information, our team provided automation and controls services for the entire process system. This included PLC, network, human-machine interface (HMI) and database design, programming, implementation, and startup for plant-wide instruments to operate according to a defined sequence of operation. Additionally, the Clark Nexsen team provided operator training and startup commissioning.
SIZE 118,600 SF – 20 Acres / COMPLETION 2013 / COST $200,000,000