SSR has been working at the Wesson Oil plant in Memphis, Tennessee for over a decade. During our time on-site, we’ve provided services for an arrangement of projects consisting of refinery upgrades, packaging upgrades, tank upgrades, and processing upgrades. One of the upgrade projects was the edible oil deodorizers on the campus.

Deodorizers play an essential role in the manufacturing of food oil, by using high-pressure steam to heat the oil to a precise temperature for stripping impurities and then cooling it to retain the natural oil characteristics. Wesson Oil’s two deodorizers each use a different process to refine the oil — the north deodorizer is semi-continuous refining and the south is continuous stage refining. While the processes are different, the equipment is similar.

SSR has provided structural, mechanical, electrical, process and utility piping, automation, and controls engineering design services, as well as project and construction management services, for multiple updates to the plant and upgrades to the deodorizers. Some of these projects have included individual and total tray replacements, packing, vacuum trim heater, shell replacement, cooling tower, and new vacuum systems.