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Coega IDZ’s first ASU to come on line

AIR PRODUCTS COEGA ASU Air Products’ Coega R300-million air separation unit is currently being commissioned and is expected to start production in the fourth quarter of 2014
G-PLANT ASU Air Products’ Vanderbijlpark-based G-Plant air separation unit, valued at R800-million, was launched in June 2014

Air Products MD Mike Hellyar and on-sites GM Rob Richardson discuss the latest developments at the company’s Coega IDZ air separation unit project and the company’s investment strategy.

AIR PRODUCTS COEGA ASU Air Products’ Coega R300-million air separation unit is currently being commissioned and is expected to start production in the fourth quarter of 2014

Photo by Kendal Hunt

G-PLANT ASU Air Products’ Vanderbijlpark-based G-Plant air separation unit, valued at R800-million, was launched in June 2014

Photo by Kendal Hunt

29th August 2014

By: David Oliveira

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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Industrial gases and chemicals supplier Air Products South Africa is commissioning its R300-million air separation unit (ASU) in the Coega industrial development zone (IDZ), in the Eastern Cape.

“The project is about 95% complete and we anticipate that the ASU will come on stream soon and will be in full production in the last quarter of 2014,” says Air Products MD Mike Hellyar, adding that this will be the first ASU to be commissioned in the province.

Air Products on-sites GM Rob Richardson explains that the commissioning process involves several phases, including starting up the utilities, such as the electrical systems and commissioning the process cooling water system. Both these systems were commissioned earlier this month.

The next phase involves turning over the compressors and starting the large electric motors.

“The final phase is the cool-down phase, which involves starting the refrigeration systems and expansion turbines that generate the cold to liquefy the air,” Richardson adds.

He notes that once the air has been liquefied, it is then separated into its component gases using fractional distillation.

Challenges
Richardson notes that the Coega ASU project, which started in 2012, resulted in Air Products transporting a large cryogenic distillation system through the Port of Ngqura for the first time, which is generally used for container traffic.

“Logistically, it was a bit of a challenge – for the port authorities and for us,” he recounts.

The cryogenic distillation system arrived at the Port of Ngqura in February this year and was delivered on site in March. The unit was lifted into place in April.

“Cryogenic distillation structures are large modules that are particularly tall, necessitating the need for sophisticated cranes to complete the lift,” Richardson notes, adding that a lattice boom crane, which is a site-erected crane, was used for the lift.

Two storage tanks that will store liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen, were transported by road from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth.

Richardson notes that the liquid nitrogen tank is about 32 m long with a diameter of about 5.5 m and weighs about 80 t, while the oxygen tank is about half the size and weight.

About 55% of the ASU’s content is locally produced, with certain core components, such as the turbo compressors and the distillation columns, being imported. The bulk of the utilities equipment, such as cooling water system equipment, electric motors, transformers and storage tanks, is locally manufactured. Engineering and project management, as well as all construction services are locally sourced by Air Products’ in-house projects team.

Innovation Investment
Hellyar highlights that the Coega IDZ ASU project forms part of the company’s R2-billion investment strategy, which is strongly focused on innovation.

“The Vanderbijlpark G-Plant ASU project is one of our recent investments, which highlights our innovation strategy,” he points out.

The R800-million G-Plant ASU was launched in June.

Richardson explains that air separation requires a significant amount of electricity to power the equipment, hence the focus on reducing the energy input required to produce a ton of saleable gas in developing ASU technology.

“Air Products is at the forefront of these technological developments. The Vanderbijlpark and Coega plants are state-of-the-art in terms of energy efficiency. We used distillation columns and packing systems that provide low-pressure drops through the system and, therefore, require less energy.”

He asserts that the company also used sophisticated heat exchanger technology, which gives the plants improved thermodynamic performance, thereby improving energy efficiency.

The two plants, which are the fifteenth and sixteenth respectively built by Air Products, are about 15% to 20% more energy efficient than those Air Products first built when it started operating in South Africa in 1969.

Thermocompressor Technology
Air Products has recently delivered another innovation technology, the R6.2-million thermo- compressor – which the company designed for steel manufacturing customer ArcelorMittal South Africa’s (AMSA’s) Newcastle integrated steel mill, in KwaZulu-Natal – in 2013.

Richardson says the mill produces two waste gas streams, coke oven gas and blast furnace gas, both of which have a significant energy value.

“Coke oven gas is a high-calorific value gas used as a fuel source. Blast furnace gas is a dilute, low-grade energy source – to such an extent that it does not sustain combustion if it is placed through a burner.”

Richardson highlights that Air Products investigated various technologies that would be able to use the available energy from the waste gases.

He says the challenge was to find a way to accurately blend the blast furnace gas with the methane-rich gas that AMSA imports and, as the blast furnace gas stream was available only at low pressure, more compression needed to be added to the stream. This would enable AMSA to effectively use the waste gases in their downstream heating processes.

“The obvious solution to this problem was to use compressors or blowers, but these use energy to create compression, whereas a thermo- compressor unit does not require any electric motors or electricity to operate.

Richardson says that, consequently, Air Products designed a system that would recover the pressure energy available in the methane-rich gas to create a mixture of intermediate pressure, and to simultaneously blend the gases accurately into a useable fuel source.

The project received capital approval in early 2013 and the thermocompressor unit was installed and commissioned in mid-2013.

Edited by Megan van Wyngaardt
Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

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