MG Industries Saves Capital by Combining Plant Air with Cryogenic Nitrogen
By Nick Basta
MG Industries (Malvern, PA), the U.S. arm of Germany's Messer Group, is building two new onsite industrial gas production facilities for DuPont, with more planned in the near future. At the most recent installation, a nylon plant in Chattanooga, TN, an unusual synergy was created when the two companies realized that the onsite gas plant could also be the source of compressed plant air.
MG, which has engineering, and project management capabilities in addition to its cryogenic gases technology, was able to design a plant that provided compressed air at three different pressures (to meet specific plant needs). State-of-the-art controls allow one air feed to be a backup for another, and for the entire system to be optimized to produce both sufficient air and liquid nitrogen. Overall capacity is in excess of 200 tons/d of liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen and liquid argon for the merchant market, gaseous nitrogen, and a combined flowrate of 60,000 ft3/min of plant air.
"Because DuPont is modernizing and consolidating its global nylon production facilities, they were looking at increasing production in Chattanooga," says Mark Bodenstab, MG Industries' national account manager. "DuPont seeks to invest in its core technologies, so outsourcing the compressed air was a natural outcome. Compressed air is now a utility for DuPont, and they're able to purchase it as they would nitrogen or electricity."
According to Tom Gari, MG Industries' VP of process and atmospheric gases, "The contract is very special, based on DuPont's reputation and MG Industries' willingness to partner with DuPont. We're a streamlined company, able to work closely with a customer."
Gari says that the project provides considerable economies not just from the combined process units (whose pipes snake throughout the DuPont plant to tie into production units where needed), but also from the redundancy it offers. "If you were to treat plant air and cryogenic nitrogen as two separate utilities, you would need backup compression for the plant air. With our setup, the compressors for the cryogenic unit can be the backup for the air system. And by producing excess cryogenic gas and storing it, we can assure a steady supply of that gas if they compressors are needed for plant air." The arrangement also allows for savings in the number of workers and other plant resources needed to run the combined system. The air compression facility required construction of a dedicated building, 300 ft long, with provisions for expansion. MG Industries' capital investment in this plant is $35 MM. Compressors from Cooper Turbocompressor, Inc. (Buffalo, NY) are being used.
Another plant is being constructed for the White Pigment & Mineral Products group at DuPont in Delisle, MS, one of the largest titanium dioxide plants in the world. The air separation unit replaces a competitor's installation and will produce over 200 tons/d of liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon to serve the merchant marketplace, and gaseous oxygen and nitrogen for DuPont. That plant is scheduled to be on-line in May 1999. Capital investment in the Delisle plant is $30 MM.
Messer, MG Industries' parent company, has a long history of industrial gas supply to the chemical industry. Messer owns and operates one of the largest pipeline systems in the world in the Rhein-Ruhr region in Germany, supplying major chemical customers such as Bayer and Huls AG. This complex, with over 700 km of pipelines, has a capacity of approximately twenty thousand tons of air gases that are delivered to over 40 major industrial customers. Messer is investing DM56 million to expand this pipeline with a new air separation plant delivering 1700 tons per day, scheduled to go on stream in October 1998.
With 1997 sales in excess of $330 MM, MG Industries employs over 1,400 people in the United States and Canada and operates over 70 production plants and facilities. MG Industries is an affiliate of the Messer Group, a global leader in industrial gases, with more than $1.6 billion in sales. With over 160 companies and over 14,500 employees, the Messer Group operates in 60 countries. Messer provides an extensive resource base from which MG Industries can draw at any time. Messer is a member of the Hoechst Group of companies.
For more information: MG Industries, 3 Great Valley Parkway, Malvern, PA 19355. Tel: 215-695-7400; Fax: 215-695-7600.