NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Stephen Long joins MRE team
S
tephen Long, who’s been in the
industrial refrigeration industry for
over 30 years now, started at MRE in
Cape Town on 1 June 2019 as the new
service director.
Stephen Long started at MRE in Cape Town on 1 June.
Long started out as a student and
worked his way up. Since then, he has
worked at various companies over the
years, gaining extensive experience in
technical, as well as the engineering side
of the business.
While his official title is ‘service
director’, as in most companies, there is
shared responsibility, so Long’s function
isn’t limited to just the service division.
Responsibilities include general technical/
engineering and support to the younger
generation of engineers, and passing on
the experience that he has gained in his
career. He is also tasked with upskilling
technicians and developing the service
department to be able to respond quickly
to any plant emergency.
He has only good things to say about
the industry. “This is a solid industry; it’s vital
to any country and will always have a role
to play any economy,” he says. “It offers
many varied challenges as no two plants
are the same, and a there are a great
variety of industries. Each day presents
new challenges, which I welcome.”
He is positive about his move to MRE.
“This is a good move for me as I move
away from a very corporate, structured
environment, to a more flexible structure,
allowing me more freedom to spend time
on my areas of expertise, and help grow
the business,” he explains. CLA
New nitrophosphate plant for Omnia
O
engineer for the project. As this is a
critical part of the process, they needed
a chiller solution that was not only robust
and reliable, but capable of managing
variable loads, and able to respond
effectively and operate cost-effectively.
“The custom-built Johnson Controls
ammonia chiller is not only able to meet
our functional demands, it offers us high
energy-efficiency gains, helping to ensure
our new production method is viable and
sustainable,” says Daby.
Finding the ideal configuration took
collaboration. “Johnson Controls worked
mnia’s new R670-million
nitrophosphate (NP) plant in
Sasolburg is built around an
innovative new production method and
will be a game-changer for the
company. Johnson Controls’ Sabroe
compressors, which power a custom-built
ammonia chiller plant, played an
important role in this project.
“A core part of the NP production
innovation is a new, more efficient
method of crystallisation, which requires
the NP liquid to be rapidly cooled,”
explains Kripal Daby, lead process
The new Omnia nitrophosphate plant’s process will be much more efficient.
COLD LINK AFRICA •
SEPTEMBER 2019
closely with the Omnia team through
multiple testing phases to engineer and
configure the chiller solution for the
new NP plant,” says Russell Hattingh,
engineering manager at Johnson
Controls. “We are pleased to be part
of what we believe is an important
innovation in the sector.”
The standard NP production method
is well known. It comprises dissolution
of rock phosphate with nitric acid,
crystallisation of the dissolving solution
and separation of the crystals from
the acid solution. About 40% of the
new Omnia NP plant process is known
up to the making of the NP liquid. The
crystallisation process is where the
differentiation lies.
Omnia required different temperature
brine streams. “To make the process
viable, efficient operation of the chiller
is critical, so multiple evaporating
temperatures were provided,” explains
Hattingh.
As such, Johnson Controls settled on
the use of four Sabroe screw compressor
chillers operating in parallel. All of these
units have variable speed drives which
enable the chillers to operate reliably
over a wide range of conditions, while
cutting energy use significantly. A
larger swing compressor was added for
versatility and redundancy.
“Given the criticality of the solution, the
service capability that Johnson Controls
can provide was an important factor in
winning this deal,” says Hattingh.
The saving for Omnia is significant.
Daby says, “The chillers can run at high
capacity (90%) and still lower our energy
usage, delivering up to R900 000 in energy
savings a year.”
In phase two, Omnia will double the
capacity of its NP plant, expanding
the chiller solution to seven Sabroe
compressors.
Hattingh notes, “We will continue
to work with Omnia to ensure optimal
performance of the Johnson Controls
ammonia chiller plant, and to customise
and refine outputs to meet the
requirements of the NP plant as it ramps
up production.
“This is a unique application for an
exciting new operation, and we are
pleased to have been able to meet
Omnia’s demands. It’s a great reflection
of what becomes possible when
we collaborate with our customers,
combining deep industry knowhow and
advanced engineering.” CLA
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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