Budimex Has Completed the PKN Orlen R&D Centre in Płock

Seven hundred cubic meters of concrete, 180 kilometers of wiring, 750 tons of reinforcement steel, and 22 kilometers of pipes. Budimex completed its work and delivered the Research and Development Centre to the investor PKN ORLEN. The net value of the contract is approximately 167 million PLN.

The contract with the investor was signed in April 2019. The investment was carried out with the EPC formula (engineering, purchasing, construction). Budimex's task outside the project was also to build and equip the Centre's 'turnkey' buildings, getting the supplied equipment, which includes measuring devices, and laboratory up and running. The Centre's work in Płock will be to develop the refinery and petrochemical industry, implement new technical solutions, and carry out work on new technologies and products. It will also improve and optimize existing processes.

- Per the investor's expectations and its functions, the complex of buildings that are part of the center had to adapt to the specificities of the refining and petrochemical industry's research and meet the highest construction requirements. As a highly experienced general contractor, Budimex met all the expectations of a timely, technological investor. The project's scale is evidenced by the vast amounts of materials used to build the facility - 750 tons of steel, or 3 times the total weight of the Statue of Liberty - according to Artur Popko, Board Chair of Budimeksu.

The investment consists of eight facilities. The complex of office and industrial buildings combining the research and storage function includes a technical building with a laboratory, research and test facilities with a pilot and mapping room, all in an area of nearly 2000 m2, and buildings for a warehouse that will house testing and raw materials. As part of the investment, an external warehouse was also created with a facility for preparing fuel mixtures and an office building, which is where the administrative facilities of the entire complex and all the necessary technical infrastructure are located. The construction work done by Budimex also included implementing infrastructure that accompanies the buildings: internal roads, parking lots, and maneuvering facilities. CBR covers an area of 43,000 m2. The spare field space will allow for expanding the facility in the future.

- The Centre is supplied with environmentally-friendly electricity. The property is equipped with modern self-cleaning photovoltaic panels and a shed (total 94 kWp) and a wind turbine that produces green energy with 2800 W of power. There is also a charging station for electric vehicles, says Artur Popko, Board Chair of Budimex. 'As part of the work, an educational path was also created where we will find interactive facilities. Among these, we'll discover the importance of fuels and chemistry in our lives and directions for developing this significant area of life, information walls or tables, and even a spatial periodic table of the elements,' Artur Popko adds.

The high-tech surface allows for flexible installation of testing facilities up to 15 meters high. The complex also includes a high- and low-temperature climate chamber, an engine dynamometer station, and high-tech facilities located in the so-called media generation belt, including two cooling towers, a boiler room for containers and a compressor, a nitrogen tank, and water treatment stations.