Michel Ruttens:
‘PRECISION AND RESOLUTION, THAT I CAN DEPEND ON AT KH ENGINEERING’
With the help of KH Engineering, Oiltanking Antwerp Gas Terminal (OTAGT) is more than tripling its storage capacity. KH Engineering has been entrusted with a highly complex project that accounts for half of the total expansion. ‘A complicated, but fascinating project and we really need KH Engineering for that,’ says Managing Director Michel Ruttens.
Since the takeover by the German family business Oiltanking , there has been considerable investment power at the Antwerp Gas Terminal. That works out well: their major customers INEOS and Borealis have an increasing need for storage and logistics due to expansions. The current storage capacity will more than triple in the coming years and KH Engineering plays a crucial role in this. This will help OTAGT become the largest independent LPG terminal in Europe.
large projects
‘At the tank terminal, OTAGT takes care of the logistics of LPG in various forms: propane, butane and different types of propylene,’ says Managing Director Michel Ruttens. Besides being a regular tank terminal, the terminal is also a kind of “spider-in-the-web” logistical hub; Connected via pipelines, with various industrial companies in Belgium and the Netherlands: think of Borealis, INEOS in Geel, Total in Antwerp and Feluy, but also the Dutch SHV is also a customer. ‘The most important thing for us is that we ensure the safe import, storage and export of gases every day,’ says Ruttens. ‘We do this transport in many ways: pipelines, tank wagons, trucks and ships. Our second concern is to serve our customers optimally. Our third challenge is to expand our storage capacity. That is now 138,000 m³. The new projects will add 300,000 m³ via two multifunctional, cooled LPG storage tanks of 150,000 m³. All together an investment of hundreds of millions of euros.’
WORKING MORE EFFICIENT AND ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
OTAGT builds the tanks according to the best possible technology and Ruttens adds: ‘Which also means: the safest and the most expensive. The new tanks are both technical masterpieces, executed in a full containment version, with a concrete outer tank and a steel inner tank . We put a lot of our know-how into these installations, for example how to operate the terminal process in the most energy-efficient way. For example, we ensure the transfer of cold propane to warm propylene via a specially constructed heat exchanger. In this way we cool the propylene while the propane is being heated: you can't have it any greener! Our new installations have all kinds of innovations that enable us to work more efficiently and environmentally friendly. We are quite proud of that.’
RELATIONSHIP GROWN
The relationship between OTAGT and KH Engineering goes back almost twenty years. Ruttens remembers: ‘At the time, we needed engineering for the addition of booster pumps and cooling compressors, among other things. From there, the relationship grew and more and more small, medium and now very large projects came to KH Engineering. The new construction and connection of the tank for Borealis is now fully entrusted to KH Engineering: they do the complete basic and detailed engineering, the project planning, the procurement, the Hazops, the SIL definitions - actually many crucial parts of the project. In the beginning of our collaboration, we worked with KH Engineering on installing piping and equipment, and now it has grown into a complete portfolio. In the meantime, they have also built and expanded that expertise, including process simulation software such as Aspen. That is very convenient for us: we can make process simulations together with KH Engineering. Because it is often not so easy to integrate new installations or processes and connect them to the existing installation. After all, you have to map out very well in advance what the impact of the new process will be on the existing process. You have to work with a complexity of process parameters, and quality of the work and the calculations has to be extreme.’
PRECISION AND RESOLUTION
‘I expect KH Engineering to do their work as accurately and flawlessly as possible,’ Ruttens continues, ‘so that we have no problems during the realization and start-up of the project. Devising and delivering high-quality work is essential to me. Precision and determination are qualities I recognize in KH Engineering. I am like that myself, and that's what I like in the partners I work with. It is also nice that I have known the people of KH Engineering for a long time. They ensure that a project is delivered on time and within budget. You can rely on them and I think that's really important.’
COMPLEX BUT FASCINATING PROJECT
Compared to twenty years ago, Ruttens believes KH Engineering has gotten better. ‘Work is now being done in a much more professional manner and they are pulling us along at a tight pace. Their quality is at a consistently high level, I have great confidence in KH Engineering. The extension project will run until November 2021, the tank is scheduled to start up in February 2022. So the project runs quite long, and is complicated. At a certain point we have the tank with which we now supply Borealis out of service and make it suitable for another customer. Borealis then “moves” to the new tank. But in the meantime, their old propane dehydrogenation unit has to keep running and feed their new unit. So we're going from a greenfield to a brownfield project with highly complex couplings. A complex, but fascinating project, in which KH Engineering plays an indispensable role!’