ASR Group Domino Sugar Refinery Rebuild

In August 2020, the American Sugar Refining (ASR) Group Domino Sugar Refinery facility in Chalmette, Louisiana, sustained fire damage to its two finished product silos. Fluor was called in to provide the client with an immediate solution that led to quickly rebuilding these critical operations.

Client's Challenge

American Sugar Refining (ASR) Group, which includes Domino Sugar and Florida Crystals, operates a number of facilities inside and outside of the United States.

ASR Group’s Domino Sugar Refinery, which has been operating on the banks of the Mississippi River since 1909, produces seven million pounds of sugar per day and is one of the region's largest employers.

In August 2020, two sugar silos caught fire and were nearly destroyed. The fire started in one of the plant's 10-story silos and then spread to an adjoining second silo.

ASR Group employees were safely evacuated, and the fire was brought under control by the local fire department.

Business continuity was critical to ASR Group due to increased demands on sugar by consumers and baking manufacturers in autumn ahead of the holiday season.

Fluor's Solution

Fluor was contacted by the client immediately after the fire and dispatched a team of subject matter experts in project management, engineering and construction from Greenville, South Carolina, and Houston, Texas, as well as from AMECO, who deployed to the Louisiana site the next morning.

The team conducted an expedited, in-depth survey of the situation, advised the customer of the remediation plan and immediately onboarded additional engineering, procurement and construction team members to accelerate the restoration and rebuild efforts.

Fluor's self-performed, design-build solution helped ASR Group have the first silo and associated material handling system fully operational in early December 2020, with follow-up work of completing the second silo in the first quarter of 2021.

The scope included prep of the damaged areas, design enhancements to improve reliability and risk management by utilizing new equipment selections, and a control system to better manage interdependencies, isolation and connectivity between the two silos.

Conclusion

The team completed clean-up, repairs, restoration and rebuild efforts for both silos ahead of schedule and under budget, with exemplary safety performance and site satisfaction.

The scope accommodated the unique circumstances of working at an operating facility and included an engineered scaffolding system and repairs to associated machine rooms, material handling conveying system, dust collection systems, fire monitoring, motor controls and instrumentation.

Fluor has since been awarded additional work by ASR Group.

In 2021, the Fluor-ASR team received the Construction Users Round Table Safety Excellence award for work related to this restoration and rebuild project.