Technology, innovation and tradition Oschatz

TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND TRADITION

Oschatz is a market leader in the fields of plant construction, energy recovery and environmental technology. Mihai Márton reports on the company’s unique technology, global presence and recent investments.

Oschatz is a family enterprise with a 165-year tradition, headed by Dr Jan-Christopher Schrag and Andreas Albrecht. The manufacturer’s roots go back to 1849 when it was established in Meerane, Germany. Initially specialised in steam boilers, over the years it has developed its core principle of ‘steam from waste heat’ to be applied in a growing number of industry sectors.

Although today the company has a global presence, there is still a strong emphasis on interpersonal contact. Commitment and cooperation are two of the most important values within the company, with management and staff working closely together at all times.

Innovation in technology

Oschatz can rightfully call itself a global market leader in several technology fields. One of them is the design and production of ammonia combustion boilers for the production of nitric acid. This technology was developed by Oschatz in the 1950s and was sold under patent law for 18 years. To this day, around 250 of these boilers have been delivered to customers around the globe with the result that around 80 per cent of all known nitric acid facilities operate using Oschatz technology.

Oschatz is also a strong international player in converter cooling stacks for steelmaking plants. Over the past 50 years the company has manufactured more than 300 cooling stacks, of which around 200 were equipped with energy recovery technology.

Furthermore, the company supplies and manufactures cooling systems for non-ferrous metallurgical production facilities. These plants cool the hot gases formed through the production process and use the energy from the waste gas to generate valuable industrial steam. Since the 1980s, Oschatz has also been constructing power plants, for example for the thermal energy recovery of waste, biomass or residue from chemical manufacturing.

Customised solutions

Oschatz’s facilities are not only as unique as a tailor-made suit, but can also be found on all continents, from Canada to Australia,

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from Kazakhstan to Zambia. Each facility is tailored to the individual requirements of each customer and process. In this way, Oschatz considers itself to be a full-service provider: it is one of the few medium-sized companies in its field worldwide with all the necessary capabilities to carry out a contract, including all related services, entirely in-house. From basic engineering to the complex construction of a plant to installation and the implementation of operations by its own personnel, Oschatz offers all services from a single provider. In addition, when the facility is in operation, the company continues to offer its clients a round-the-clock service, such as through the rapid delivery of spare parts in the event of a break-down.

Global player

The Oschatz Group currently operates from three separate production plants, located in Turkey, China and the Czech Republic. The Turkish site is the most technologically advanced, having been completely rebuilt in 2010. The facility is based in a free-trade zone in the region of Kocaeli, around 120km south-east of Istanbul on a total area of 60,000m2. From here, the company serves its customers in Europe as well as throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, if required the Kocaeli site has the capacity to double its production surface area. 200 employees currently work here, although the assembly line has capacity for a further 200.

The production plant in China was inaugurated in 2005 and just three years later it was extended to become the Oschatz Group’s largest assembly line at the time. It is located on an area of 50,000m2 with 600 employees serving Asia as well as Australia and Oceania. Since 2012, there has also been a third factory in Prague, operating on an area of 1650m2 and focused on the production of smaller parts for boilers, pipelines and spare parts.

A challenging future

Innovation is central to Oschatz’s business philosophy. It develops individual solutions for energy recovery from waste heat as well as focusing on energy extraction from combustion synthesis (e.g. waste incineration, biomass and so on). The company is active in the iron and steel industry, the non-ferrous metal industry, the chemical industry, power plant technology and filter technology. It is therefore somewhat broadly based in comparison to many of its competitors and has a solid foundation from which to maintain its success during economically challenging times.

The largest investment in recent years involved the rebuilding of the Turkish plant at a cost of €16 million entirely financed from the company’s own resources. At present Oschatz sees major growth potential in the field of power plant technology (waste-to-energy or direct fired boilers), as well as in thermal waste disposal facilities for the chemical industry.

“With regard to regional expansion, the South East Asian states, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, are currently in the middle of an economic boom so Oschatz will certainly look to exploit this potential in the coming years,” concludes Dr Jan-Christopher Schrag. n