23/09/2026
When an equipment supplier hands you the process requirements first, the structure follows. That was the sequence on this one.
A multi-storey steel structure in Suez, built for an edible oil refinery process — bleaching and deodorization — in cooperation with a global process equipment supplier. 26 metres of height across multiple levels, each one carrying a different stage of the process.
Height changes the problem. On a single-storey industrial shed, load path is mostly vertical and the questions are about span. Stack that same equipment across several levels at 26 m, and lateral stability, differential settlement between floors, and access for maintenance all become design decisions in their own right — not afterthoughts once the frame is up.
Our scope covered the structural steel, the supporting reinforced-concrete elements, and the mechanical design of the vessels, pipe racks, and piping — all developed together rather than handed between disciplines after the fact.
The equipment supplier defined the process requirements. We designed the structure around them, level by level.
287 tonnes of structural steel. Designed to AISC and ACI.
On multi-storey industrial structures, what usually drives your floor-to-floor height: the equipment, or the access around it?
