NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Air Products invests
A
R100m in upgrade
ir Products was well-poised
to respond when the market
demanded an increase in the
supply of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and
be assessed until the equipment could
be dismantled and inspected internally.
Dos Santos further mentions that the
project also included improvements
with regards to water usage 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 was brought on
stream in November 2017.
» » The first of the two storage tanks was
brought into operation in December
2017.
» » The second storage tank was brought
into operation in April 2018.
they took action by investing R100-million
in a significant CO 2 expansion and
refurbishment project at the 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 CO 2 , has been identified as a target
market in line with the long-term strategic
vision for the CO 2 business at Air Products.
Air Products’ gaseous CO 2 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 CO 2
Dos Santos highlights that Air Products is
fortunate to have 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 multi-
disciplinary 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
production capacity available at the
Newcastle Facility.
Charles Dos Santos, Air Products general
manager – on-sites, explains that the
scope of the CO 2 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 CO 2
production facility.
“The refurbishment part of the project
was extremely challenging as the work
had to be done on a facility that was
operational, thereby only allowing the
refurbishment team limited opportunities
to undertake the necessary refurbishment,
upgrades and tie-ins as the operations
allowed,” explained Dos Santos.
As the existing plant was completed in
1998, and its full capacity had not been
used since 2013, the condition of the
equipment and scope of work could not
QUALITY MATTERS
Quality is an important aspect of Air
Products’ operations and depending
on the application there are varying
specifications required by our customers.
CO 2 is produced for Air Products from two
different sources – the Newcastle facility
and the Natref refinery in Sasolburg. CO 2
is produced at these sources according
to the International Society of Beverage
Technologists (ISBT) specifications as a
minimum quality specification and is used
for food and beverage applications. The
CO 2 used for the food and beverage
customer applications 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.
Abdul Shaik, operational risk manager,
explains that prior to the upgrade project,
the CO 2 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 (QC)
Laboratory. “This caused inefficiencies in
PROJECT SCOPE
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.”
Air Products’ bulk tanker ready to load from the two new carbon dioxide
storage tanks at the Newcastle facility.
COLD LINK AFRICA • July/August 2019
our road tanker fleet and unnecessary time
delays, ultimately impacting on the overall
service delivery to the customer,” he said.
With the upgrade, a laboratory and
analyser were installed at the Natref
Facility, enabling on-site testing at the
facility. “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,” explained Shaik.
PROJECT IMPACT
The overall investment in the project has
enabled Air Products to cost-effectively
and optimally use its assets to expand
rapidly to meet the market’s increased
CO 2 requirements. The upgrade project
resulted in a substantial increase in the
liquid CO 2 production capacity as well as
the diversity of supply to customers.
The upgrade project had a huge
impact on Air Products’ supply chain
business – it is fully geared to confidently
offer a secure supply of CO 2 to support the
market growth and growing its footprint
in the food and beverage market.
According to Seelan Gounden, general
manager – supply chain, supplying
larger volumes of CO 2 is perceived as
challenging to most companies. “Air
Products has been extremely cautious
and we did all the necessary forecasts
and projections to ensure that our
decision is responsible and will benefit the
organisation in the long term.”
Dos Santos and Gounden are in
agreement that the completion of this
project is a noteworthy achievement for
Air Products in many ways. Using existing
assets and improved efficiencies both
address the continuous strive towards
improvement and innovation. Gounden
concludes: “Air Products’ entire value
chain has been impacted by this
upgrade and we are pleased with the
increased diversity of production sites
and storage capacity. We are also
ensuring that we optimise our modern
fleet by doing fewer trips and reducing
our carbon footprint. We are looking
forward to provide a secure supply of
CO 2 to our existing customers as well as
to grow the CO 2 market.” CLA
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