9 minute read
eXp’s sulfuric acid team delivers reliable, client-focused solutions
By: April Kabbash, Editor, Sulfuric Acid Today
With a mission to understand, innovate, partner, and deliver, EXP provides engineering, architecture, design, and consulting services to the world’s built and natural environments. As a leader in the fertilizers and chemicals sector, EXP’s experts have provided solutions for sulfuric acid plants around the globe. The company’s committed team of professionals apply their knowledge to deliver integrated, innovative solutions across industries. With a commitment to clients’ bottom lines and operational needs, EXP’s sulfuric acid team brings proven solutions to help meet each customer’s goal, whether that is plant expansion, heat and energy utilization and recovery, plant optimization or reliability, or safety services.
Headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, EXP employs more than 3,500 creative professionals across North America who provide the passion and experience needed to deliver successful projects around the globe. Consistently ranked one of Canada’s top design and engineering firms, EXP is also the winner of countless engineering excellence awards. This team of experts is dedicated to providing innovative solutions across markets and geographies to solve clients’ most complex challenges. Those solutions, along with everything the company does, are firmly rooted in EXP’s core values: Integrity, Passion, Accountability, Transparency, Diversity, and Community + Sustainability. These pillars consistently guide team members, no matter the size or scope of the job. As with most things in the sulfuric acid industry, finding the right people for the job makes all the difference to the outcome.
Sulfuric Acid Today sat down with EXP sulfuric acid experts Vulcan Mutler, Trevor Van Daele, Douglas Louie, Wayne Boyd, Brennan Afelskie, and Yi Zhou to get their insights on EXP’s role in the sector.
EXP serves a wide range of industries. What sets your sulfuric acid team apart?
Vulcan Mutler, Senior Vice President of the Oil, Gas + Chemicals market: EXP experts have decades of experience across the complete range of acid plants, from sulfur burning through spent acid to metallurgical gas. To address the market’s dynamic needs of expected outcomes with tailored execution strategies that consider sustainability and unique client-specific requirements, EXP assembled the sulfuric acid team with recognized leaders in the industry, each bringing their unique experience to further enhance our ability to meet clients’ objectives. Furthermore, a significant portion of the sulfuric acid team is based in Houston, the center of the OG+C business, where there is a higher concentration of sulfuric acid plants than anywhere else.
3D rendering of plant during design process.
What types of projects have you worked on in the sulfuric acid sector? Can you give us some details on your role in those projects and what EXP is most proud of?
Trevor Van Daele, Director of Engineering, Oil, Gas + Chemicals in Canada: EXP experts have been engaged in nearly every type of sulfuric acid project, from the replacement of plant equipment, to capacity upgrades, to greenfield projects. EXP experts have contributed to noteworthy and sizeable projects around the world. Our role for each project, whether metallurgical, sulfur burning, or spent acid plants using single absorption, DCDA, advanced heat recovery, and scrubber systems is to provide engineering and process solutions to each plant, as well as support our clients in reducing environmental impacts, improving plant reliability, and increasing the capacity of operations. We are proud to deliver projects on time and on capacity that meet stringent process specifications and emissions requirements.
What strengths do you as a group bring to a project?
Wayne Boyd, Process Engineer: EXP’s strengths relate to the wealth of experience in process knowledge and breadth of execution models. Our team offers clients flexibility in the marketplace, accompanied by professionals who possess the experience to meet owner’s requirements, including completing a project on time, within budget, and meeting technical expectations. In addition, EXP brings clients the comfort of established relationships with technology providers and key suppliers to streamline project success. This includes over 50 years of working in varying geographic areas from arctic zones to deserts, as well as high seismic zones. In addition, the team’s experience ranges from the smallest to largest capacity (3x5050 MTPD) plants and the ability to scale the scope of a project to the client’s needs with extensive experience designing the balance of plant facilities, including power plants, tank farms, loading and unloading facilities, water treatment plants, and other utilities.
416.444.4880
admin@mercad.com ● www.mercad.com
Brennan Afelskie, Process Engineer: EXP is a client-focused organization and we are committed to working with clients on various contract models to result in reliable outcomes. We are confident in our ability to execute projects including on a lump-sum turnkey basis whereas other engineering companies may no longer execute under this model. The difference is that EXP has the expertise to execute and the ability to mitigate risk.
What’s the benefit to customers of EXP’s multi-faceted engineering and design teams?
Yi Zhou, Mechanical Engineer: EXP serves clients as a one-stop solution and trusted advisor. EXP provides clients with a full range of services, contract models, and scope definition. We’re nimble and flexible to ensure requirements and specifications are met, from early project definition through commissioning and start-up. EXP can assist clients with their sulfuric acid plant with the following services:
Converter segments undergoing shop fabrication.
• Conceptual design • Risk assessment • Environmental and permitting • Regulatory and compliance • FEL 1, 2, 3 studies • EPC – LS project management • Detail engineering • Global procurement • Construction management • Revamping and turnaround • 3D laser scanning • 3D modelling • PSV verification audits • HAZOP/HAZID, PSR, PSSR reviews • FEA/CFD analysis • Modular/containerized concepts • Commissioning & start-up • Operational readiness • Power studies
What are the most common hurdles you face when beginning a new sulfuric acid sector project? What steps do you take to mitigate them?
Douglas Louie, Process Engineer: With our transparent approach and close working relationship with our clients, any hurdles are quickly removed. With any large project across complex industries, particularly the oil, gas, and chemicals industry, our teams are focused on satisfying owner expectations, while respecting budget and schedule constraints. With this understanding, our designs also consider environmental regulations, gaseous emissions, and more stringent standards. We have experience in incorporating innovative processes to accommodate revised emission regulations and our experienced team has been able to adopt and adapt accordingly. Our team walks through the scope of the work with the client to fully understand their core drivers and restrictions, so that we are fully aligned.
How does your Integrated Project Delivery option benefit customers?
Wayne Boyd: Whether EXP is serving as an EPC Contractor or through standalone Engineering and FEED services, our integrated project delivery approach remains consistent—utilizing the right experts to deliver expected outcomes to meet the cost, schedule, and safety standards of our clients.
What are the company’s future plans for the sulfuric acid industry?
Trevor Van Daele: EXP established the sulfuric acid group as an integral part of the company’s strategy. With the combined expertise of EXP’s experienced engineers and designers, we look forward to providing sulHow do you apply the company’s Core Values (Integrity, Passion, Accountability, Transparency, Diversity, Community + Sustainability) to work in the Sulfuric Acid sector?
Vulcan Mutler: EXP’s core values reflect our commitment to exploring the possibilities with our employees, clients, and communities. Working in tandem with EXP’s mission and vision, we stay diligent in our efforts to enhance our workforce and the built and natural environment. Understanding we are in a dynamic and challenging sector, we utilize our values to propel our clients forward. The focus of each core value, from transparency in keeping our clients informed, to diversity, where we foster an environment where employees can grow and bring forth innovative ideas, yields results and reliability for our clients. At EXP, we are committed to upholding these values to result in more efficient sulfuric acid plants, as they are a crucial part of environmental emissions reduction. Through our role as a trusted advisor, we bring our decades of experience to provide proven results for our clients – and this all stems from who we are at EXP and what we do.
For more information, please visit www. exp.com or emailing Walter.Mutler@exp.com or Trevor.VanDaele@exp.com. q
40+
years of experience across the energy industry
#13
Chemical Plants, Top Design Firms in Manufacturing, ENR, 2020
With more than 40 years of sulfuric acid experience in North America and internationally, the EXP team delivers end-to-end services for our clients taking projects from conceptual study through to EPC LSTK. Our team of experts has demonstrated experience from the smallest to the largest sulfuric acid plants including advanced heat recovery systems, power generation, and oleum production within the metallurgical, sulfur burning and spent acid recovery markets.
Whether as an EPC project or through stand-alone engineering and FEED services, our focus is consistent - delivering expected outcomes through tailored execution, compliance, cost, schedule, quality and safety.
OIL + GAS | CHEMICALS | RENEWABLES | MIDSTREAM | OFFSITES | UTILITIES | INFRASTRUCTURE
exp com
OG+C Head Office | Houston, TX | +1.713.439.3670
