Material dredged from the Loop River Canal is fed to Preferred Sands’ processing plant in Genoa, Nebraska, where it cycles through a wet plant, a drying and screening plant, and a coating facility to produce proppants for the oil and gas industry. When wet-plant inefficiencies and operational difficulties limited overall plant production, Preferred Sands decided to improve the existing line’s operation and double wet-plant production capacity by adding a second processing line.
Barr conducted several site inspections, assessed unused equipment at the plant for potential incorporation into the second processing line, and developed improvements to the process flowsheets for better sand grading and process reliability. Following the new flowsheets, we redesigned the existing wet-plant line and designed the new second line utilizing a combination of available existing equipment and new equipment.
Detailed design was complete in time for winter construction, so the modified facility was ready for spring startup, resulting in improved product quality and increased production with low capital investment and minimal downtime.