LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – If you were driving around Lafayette and throughout parts of Acadiana Friday morning, you may have noticed a huge vessel slowly being moved to a dock on the Vermilion River.

But what exactly was this large steel object and where was it headed?
    
It’s not a tank, or a piece of ship.

What was rolling from Carencro, through Lafayette, towards the Vermilion River on Friday, was a massive flare knockout vessel used at refineries.

“You see the flares going off, that’s a process. It has to go through this type of equipment to knock water out all your moistures, the gas goes to the top, and they’re able to flare that gas from their flare stacks,” said Curtis Rohman, Production Manager at Custom Process Equipment in Carencro.

The vessel is about 60 feet in length, and about 100 thousand pounds of carbon steel. The outer wall of the vessel is only about 3 quarters of an inch thick.

“It starts out as flat plate. We cut it, we roll it, we weld it, we put all the nossels back in place, and we basically take flat steel, and make it a working part,” asid Rohman.

Berard Transportation delivered the vessel to a dock at the Vermilion River.

“Of course the barge had to come into play here, because going through New Orleans with that size of equipment, it was just too many obstacles. So the best route would be to truck it, get it on the water,” said Rohman.

Because of the sheer size of the vessel, crews had to stop traffic and raise traffic signals and other wires, for it to make it to the destination. 

“We actually have to truck it to the barge, the barge is going to take it to water of course to the Port of Chalmette, from there it’s going to be off-roaded, brought into the plant and placed,” said Rohman.

The vessel took about 4 months to make from start to finish.

Rohman says that Custom Process Equipment has shipped products across the world, to places including Iraq, Trinidad, and Columbia. 

“There’s not only a need locally for this type of processed equipment, theres a need globally for this type of equipment, and we try to cater to as many needs as we can,” said Rohman.

The vessel certainly made for an interesting morning commute throughout parts of Acadiana on Friday…