Compressed natural gas solutions broaden range for industrial clients

28th August 2015

By: Donna Slater

Features Deputy Editor and Chief Photographer

  

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Combustion technology company The Combustion Group (TCG) now offers industrial gas-consuming clients complete end-to-end solutions, thereby extending its traditional equipment and projects business into the supply of fuels – in particular, natural gas products.

Initially, TCG offered only combustion equipment, such as burners, pipe trains, package designs, projects, servicing and maintenance. The new solutions include the sourcing and supply of physical gas fuels, enabling clients to focus on their core business while the company supplies the gas and associated combustion equipment.

The gas solutions include all stages of gas use, from receiving the fuel to combusting and turning it into energy.

“To date, this has been made possible through a partnership with [energy solutions company] Novo Energy, a compressed natural gas (CNG) supplier, with a number of industrial sites now successfully operational,” says TCG MD Charles dos Santos.

TCG now seeks to supply natural gas and energy conversion products, says TCG chairperson Alex Andersson.

He adds that, owing to historically limited volumes of natural gas available in South Africa and limited pipe infrastructure, the company decided in 2010 to expand its expertise and products in the field of CNG, offering cleaner fuels to its industrial clients and more cost-effective combustion fuel for industrial applications.

CNG is currently a preferred and ideal option for industrial energy applications, owing to its being easily compressed and transported using tube trailers, Andersson tells Engineering News. The trailer tankers can be parked at a client’s site without the need for an environ- mental-impact assesment and can easily be replaced once the tanker is empty. All the client requires is gas decompression capacity, infrastructure and the required equipment conversions, all of which TCG also designs and supplies.

Further, the company looks for pockets of gas that are in proximity to industrial clusters, thereby making it easier to get the gas to end- users over a short distance, which also helps make an otherwise stranded resource financially feasible, he adds.

For this reason, TCG has divided South Africa into key industrial clusters to simplify the strategy of sourcing gas resources in close proximity to certain industrial clients. “CNG is largely a short-term to medium-term solution,” says Andersson, adding that, in the longer term, and when natural gas becomes more freely available in South Africa, it is possible to replace clients’ CNG solutions with piped natural gas solutions.

However, CNG infrastructure does not require large capital investments and is economically feasible for the quantities in which most industrial clients require gas, notes Andersson. He adds that investment in natural gas pipelines has been poor in recent years, mainly because there have been insufficient gas volumes available and the active collaboration of key players to make gas available to industry has been limited.

Andersson says that, invariably, the only viable option for power plants using gas would be a gas pipeline or liquefied natural gas, owing to the vast amounts of gas required by power generation equipment: “CNG is, therefore, not suited to power plants using gas, unless, for example, there may be complementary gases available on site and a combined heat and power application.”

The CNG solutions that TCG offers are a means of developing the market in the next five to ten years, he says. “By that time, we hope that South Africa will have far greater access to natural gas sources in substantial quantities and on a sustainable basis.”

Gas Focus
TCG decided to increase its focus on gas in 2010 following its prediction that gas was an expanding energy resource and would play well into South Africa’s energy mix in the near future.

Over the past few years, the group has been developing its capability to provide solutions for the gas sector – specifically the energy sector, where gas is used to produce electricity, steam or heat, says Dos Santos.

“The future of gas in South Africa is natural gas; there is not much need for liquid petroleum gas or other fuels, owing to the increased cost of processing and sourcing other fuels.”

Dos Santos adds that TCG aims to gain an annuity through long-term contracts in the supply of gas fuels and products. “We believe there is no other company in the local market that can provide such a comprehensive gas solution.”

He tells Engineering News that TCG identified the near-term evolution from a coal-based economy to a gas-based economy, but adds that it is still “anyone’s guess” as to how long the evolution will take – “ . . . probably longer than current expectations, though”.

Dos Santos further notes that gas has been traditionally perceived as contributing 3% to 5% of the energy mix in South Africa, but he believes that, in time, this contribution might increase to over 50%.

New MD
TCG appointed Dos Santos as the group’s new MD in June.

He is well known in the South African gas industry, having worked for gas company Air Products for nearly 21 years. Among his achievements is the development of a 100-km-long hydrogen pipeline, from Vanderbijlpark to Springs.

Dos Santos tells Engineering News he plans to propel TCG into the industries of natural gas and energy conversion by adopting an aggressive approach to marketing its solutions.

Meanwhile, TCG recently merged its traditional thermal process company, Ferminore Process Plant, with TCG. This resulted in the addition of not only vast expertise regarding coal and thermal processing, but also solutions in downstream thermal processing, which can include energy conversion and drying applications, as well as hot-gas generators.

TCG has identified significant potential for growth in KwaZulu-Natal; hence, it opened it an office in Pietermaritzburg in late 2014; it will also soon open an office in Cape Town, in the Western Cape.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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