Company invests in R100-million upgrade to meet market demand

19th July 2019

     

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Chemicals industry company Air Products was well-poised to respond when the market demanded an increase in the supply of carbon dioxide (CO2) and it took action by investing R100-million in a significant CO2 expansion and refurbishment project at its Newcastle facility in KwaZulu-Natal and an upgrade at the National Petroleum Refiners of South Africa (Natref) facility in Sasolburg.

The growing food and beverage industry, which is the largest consumer of CO2, has been identified as a target market in line with the long-term strategic vision for the CO2 business at Air Products.

The company’s gaseous CO2 facility in Newcastle has the capacity to produce and recover large quantities of carbon dioxide from blast furnace off-gas; however, the facility’s capacity to liquefy gas was extremely limited.

Following Air Products’ bulk business being awarded a large tender to supply one of South Africa’s largest beverage manufacturers, there was a need to invest in a new liquefier to complement the existing liquefaction plant and use the excess gaseous CO2 production capacity available at the Newcastle facility.

Air Products on sites GM Charles Dos Santos explains that the scope of the CO2 expansion and refurbishment project, which started early in 2017, was quite extensive.

“The project was executed in three parallel streams, which required the installation of a new liquefier, the addition of two liquid storages on the facility as well as the refurbishment of the existing gaseous CO2 production facility.”

He explains that the refurbishment part of the project was extremely challenging as the work had to be done on a facility that was operational. Therefore, this only allowed the refurbishment team limited opportunities to undertake the necessary refurbishment, upgrades and tie-ins as the operations allowed.

He adds that, owing to the existing plant having been completed in 1998, with its full capacity not being used since 2013, the condition of the equipment and scope of

work could not be assessed until the equipment could be dismantled and inspected internally.

Dos Santos further mentions that the project also included improvements with regard to water use and energy efficiency.

Even though there was an extremely tight deadline, the project was completed on time and exceeded its design performance.

The project was approved in March 2017 and the plant was brought on-stream in phases. The new liquefier and refurbished gas production plant were brought on stream in November 2017.

The first of the two storage tanks was brought into operation in December 2017, with the second storage tank brought into operation in April 2018.

Dos Santos highlights that Air Products has highly skilled employees with various skills sets required to execute a project of this complexity.

“The key role-players in the project consisted of a multidisciplinary on-sites projects team based at the Vanderbijlpark and Newcastle facilities. As with most projects of this nature, you do encounter challenges, but I am pleased to say that the team adapted and managed the challenges exceptionally well.

“We are extremely focused on maintaining high safety standards, and this remained a key priority. Besides the on-sites teams, the supply chain and quality teams were also instrumental in the process,” he says.

He adds that CO2 is produced for Air Products from the Newcastle facility and the Natref refinery. The CO2 produced at these sources is according to the International Society of Beverage Technologists specifications as a minimum quality specification and used for food and beverage applications.

In addition, the CO2 is required to be tested and supplied with a certificate of analysis (COA). The COA is issued to the customer upon delivery of the product.

Air Products operational risk manager Abdul Shaik explains that prior to the upgrade project, the CO2 produced at the Natref facility had to be transported by tanker to the Air Products Vanderbijlpark facility where it was tested and a COA was issued by the Vanderbijlpark quality control laboratory.

“This caused inefficiencies in our road tanker fleet and unnecessary time delays, ultimately impacting on the overall service delivery to the customer. With the upgrade, a laboratory and analyser were installed at the Natref facility enabling on-site testing at the facility.”

He mentions that the laboratories located at both the Natref and Newcastle facilities ensure that the quality is verified at source and, as a result, this leads to an improvement in customer service.

Shaik notes that the overall investment in the project has enabled Air Products to cost-effectively use its assets to expand rapidly to meet the market’s increased CO2 requirements. The upgrade project resulted in a substantial increase in the liquid CO2 production capacity as well as the diversity of supply to customers.

Dos Santos and Shaik are in agreement that the completion of this project is a noteworthy achievement for Air Products in many ways.

Edited by Zandile Mavuso
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features

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