10 minute read
Industry Insights
Department INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
High Street Capital acquires Koch Knight
CANTON, Ohio—High Street Capital recently announced the acquisition of Knight Material Technologies (KMT), formerly Koch Knight, LLC, a Koch Engineered Solutions (KES) company and subsidiary of Koch Industries, Inc. Koch will remain a key customer of KMT, and the two companies will continue to maintain a strong relationship.
High Street Capital intends to invest in KMT’s technology, innovation plan, and infrastructure to grow its market share, relying on its existing management team and employees. The current management team will remain in place, and KMT has plans to ensure services and materials continue at current production levels without interruption.
“We look forward to this new opportunity,” said Kevin Brooks, president of KMT. “Knight Material Technologies will be in a position to take advantage of new opportunities and ideas in an entrepreneurial environment. In addition, the investment will enable us to expand manufacturing operations, including workforce and vendor relations.”
The transfer of ownership aligns with other companies in the High Street Capital portfolio of industrial manufacturers, processors, and service organizations. The equity firm has a long history of investing and growing niche manufacturing businesses.
“Knight Material Technologies is an ideal partner for High Street Capital—they are a world-class service provider with superior products and an outstanding reputation, and that only comes from having really great people throughout the company,” stated Matt Laffey, principal at High Street Capital. “We anticipate supporting management’s growth plan immediately by investing in new product technologies and infrastructure to capture opportunities in the market.”
Demand for KMT products and services has been increasingly growing during the past few years. As a result of the change in ownership, the company will be well-positioned to expand manufacturing production, including the popular Flexeramic® ceramic structured packing systems and other proprietary materials.
For more information, visit www. KnightMaterials.com.
International private equity consortium finalizes purchase of Clean Technologies business from DuPont
CHESTERFIELD, MO—New Year’s Day marked the beginning for Elessent Clean Technologies as an international private equity consortium, consisting of BroadPeak Global LP, Asia Green Fund, and The Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Company, completed its transaction to purchase the Clean Technologies business of DuPont de Nemours, Inc.
The new, independent company has been
For the past 30 years VIP International has led the industry in innovative equipment and procedures in maintaining sulfuric acid plants. As the industry demands longer run times between catalyst screening, VIP’s patented catalyst handling system ensures the longest run time with lowest pressure drops to ensure maximum performance of your converter. Contact VIP International to learn how to reduce your downtime and increase your production and on stream factor.
225-753-8575
named Elessent Clean Technologies and is a global leader in process technologies to drive sustainability and carbon neutrality in the metal, fertilizer, chemical, and oil refining industries. Elessent retains exclusive rights to the technologies, expertise, products, and services to which these industries have grown accustomed from the Clean Technologies business over the years, including: MECS sulfuric acid and environmental technologies, BELCO scrubbing technologies, STRATCO alkylation technology, and IsoTherming hydroprocessing technology.
“We are excited about what the future holds for us as a standalone company,” said Elessent CEO, Eli Ben-Shoshan, “The strong global expertise of the group will accelerate our mission to deliver the technology and tailored solutions our customers need to more efficiently produce cleaner products for the world.”
Derived from the words “element” and “essential,” Elessent helps customers produce, optimize or separate essential elements every day. From the production of carbonless energy to the production of sulfuric acid for the metals and fertilizer industries, and from removal of sulfur from refined oil products to air pollution control, Elessent creates clean alternatives to traditional industrial processes to minimize the impact on the environment.
For more information, visit www. ellesentct.com.
IOCL Haldia Refinery completes BS-VI project of wet sulfuric acid unit
NEW DELHI—The BS-VI project at IOCL Haldia Refinery achieved a final milestone with the successful mechanical completion of the wet sulfuric acid unit.
The main objective of the sulfuric acid plant is to recover minimum 99.9% sulfur from H2S rich gases from ARU and SWS units. This unit is designed to produce 98.5% sulfuric acid from SWS and ARU units mainly from NH3 rich sour gases and acid gases respectively.
To meet this requirement a capacity of 325 TPD sulfuric acid unit has been envisaged at IOCL Haldia Refinery Hardeep Singh Puri. Haldia Refinery is one of the two refineries of IndianOil Group Companies producing Lube Oil Base Stocks (LOBS) situated 136 km downstream of Kolkata in the district of Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, near the confluence of river Hooghly and Haldi.
For more information, visit www.iocl.com.
Nornickel buys tech for sulfur capture
MOSCOW—Russia-based mining and metals company Nornickel is preparing to receive six shell-and-tube heat exchangers for sulfuric acid production as part of the sulfur program to capture sulfur dioxide emissions at its Nadezhda Metallurgical and Copper smelters.
The six heat exchangers were assembled and tested at a special site in St Petersburg and delivered to the Port of Dudinka in an ice-class vessel.
The company has prepared a “transport corridor” to transport the heat exchangers to the sulfur program site. This includes engineering communications, plane structures, plus additional turning and reloading sites.
The sulfur program technology includes the intermediate production of sulfuric acid with a high degree of sulfur dioxide recovery. Nornickel said this is “the proven and most efficient way” of utilizing sulfur dioxide in the metal and mining industry. The company explained that the technology captures 99% or more of the gas from the units on which it is installed.
Additionally, it said the program will cut sulfur dioxide emissions in Norilsk, Russia’s northernmost city by 90% after 2025
In addition to the sulfur program, Nornickel said it would invest 63 million in 2022 on new machinery and equipment for the Kola Division. In total, the company will purchase 2,000 units of equipment, including 14 filter presses for the chemical and metallurgical shop. Its Kola MMC asset will include a mobile laboratory for air monitoring.
For more information, visit www. nornnickel.com.
Metso Outotec awarded $170 million order for Norway zinc project
HELSINKI—Metso Outotec, a frontrunner in sustainable technologies, has been awarded a $170 million contract for the delivery of key technology to the Boliden Odda zinc smelter expansion in western Norway.
With the expansion, Boliden Odda is planning to increase its annual production capacity of zinc metal from 200,000 to 350,000 tonnes. Several by-products will also be produced. The project is called Green Zinc Odda, and its energy consumption is based on fossil-free energy. Metso Outotec’s scope of delivery includes roasting and off-gas cleaning solutions and a sulfuric acid plant.
Metso Outotec will also supply hydrometallurgical equipment and technology for calcine leaching, solid liquid separation, solution purification, as well as process and plant engineering and site services. Metso Outotec deliveries will take place in 2022-2024.
“The Green Zinc Odda project paves way for more sustainable zinc production and is yet another important milestone in the many years of collaboration between Boliden and Metso Outotec,” said Jari Ålgars, president, Metals business area at Metso Outotec.
Metso Outotec’s industry-leading zinc processing technologies consist of several proprietary Planet Positive solutions. These sustainable and cost-efficient technologies and services enable efficient zinc and by-product recovery from a wide range of primary zinc raw material. In the roasting process, even electrical power is produced as a by-product.
For more information, visit www. mogroup.com.
SNC Lavalin to undertake feasibility study in Australia
Ammaroo Phosphate Project in the Northern Territory of Australia. SNC-Lavalin is providing engineering and procurement services to assess the feasibility of a 4,500-metric tonper-day sulfuric acid plant which will be part of a fully integrated mine and downstream processing facility to produce ammonium phosphate fertilizers.
This sulfuric acid plant will utilize DuPont MECS technologies to minimize SO2 emissions, rendering the plant more sustainable in the long-term. MECS® Heat Recovery System (HRS) technology will also be used to recover medium pressure steam from the sulfuric acid plant, an energy now captured instead of being wasted, providing the majority of energy requirements for the site and removing the need to have additional sources of energy. This will maximize energy efficiency while reducing the overall facility’s reliance on energy supply from external sources and overall lessen its carbon footprint.
“We are proud to be working with Verdant Minerals on this project to develop a world class sulfuric acid plant as part of its major new mine and processing development, ensuring the long-term sustainability of its operations,” said Patrick Sikka, Vice-President, North America, Mining & Metallurgy at SNC-Lavalin.
For more information, please www. snclavalin.com.
Nuberg EPC wins two sulfuric acid plant projects in Egypt and Ethiopia
Leading Indian Global EPC and turnkey project management company, Nuberg EPC, has announced winning two sulfuric acid plant projects in Gamasa City, Egypt and Oromia, Ethiopia. The 500 million tpd and 5 MW Rating STG Set in Egypt is scheduled to be delivered in 22 months and the 50 tpd sulfuric acid and 40 tpd aluminium sulfate revamp project in Ethiopia in 15 months from the contract LC opening date.
These projects are an acknowledgement of Nuberg EPC’s advanced sulfuric acid technology–double-contact double-absorption (DCDA) and execution capability. In this process the product gases, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and sulfur trioxide (SO3), are passed through absorption towers twice to achieve further absorption and production of higher-grade sulfuric acid. Before this the company has built more than seven sulfuric acid plants in Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Oman. Over the years, Nuberg EPC has established itself as a world-class sulfuric acid EPC- LSTK supplier.
A. K. Tyagi, MD, Nuberg EPC, said: “We look forward to further strengthening the faith of the clients in our sulfuric acid turnkey project expertise and engineering talent. The whole industry faced challenging times last year and yet we managed to deliver to our commitments in time. We will be looking forward to delivering ahead of schedule for an early start to our clients.”
Nuberg EPC’s scope of services for these projects include process design and technology including product and technology development, process know-how and licensing, basic engineering, front end engineering design (FEED), construction management, operation and maintenance, detailed engineering, project management, commissioning, EPC & LSTK Solutions, heavy fabrication, and start-up of the plant.
For more information, visit www. nubergepc.com. q
Fertilizer industry mourns loss of icon
FRESNO, California— Mack A. Barber, 94, passed away on December 2, 2021, in Fresno, CA. Born on July 31, 1927, in Wyaconda, MO, to John S. Barber and Pauline (McReynolds) Barber, Mack grew up on his family’s farm. He graduated from Wyaconda High School in 1945. After high school he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was honorably discharged in 1947. He then graduated from the University of Missouri in 1953 with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. Mack was an icon in the fertilizer industry all over the world for nearly 70 years. Mack married his high school sweetheart Lyla Jean (Fields) in 1947 at the Little Brown Church in the Vale, Nashua, IA. They were happily married for 74 years, raised 4 children, and traveled the world. Mack is survived by his wife Lyla J. Barber, his sons Michael (wife Johnny) Barber of Houston, TX, Steven Barber of Fresno, CA, Jeffrey (wife Melinda) Barber of Parrish, FL, daughter Janene Barber of Valparaiso, FL, and granddaughter Maegan Barber of Houston, TX. q
Lyla and Mack Barber enjoying the 2012 AIChE conference in Clearwater, Florida.
Op�mus delivered its rst sulfuric acid plant waste heat recovery system in 1996. Across the power and process industries, we’ve produced more heat recovery boilers, HRSGs, superheaters, and economizers than any ac�ve company in the USA. Op�mus and its Chanute Manufacturing plant have a long‐standing rep‐uta�on for high‐quality workmanship and on‐�me performance. Cus‐tomers trust our unique manufacturing exper�se and have condence in our quality control and comprehensive project execu�on.
50 years of manufacturing experience 99% life�me on‐�me delivery performance 20 years experience in Sulfuric Acid waste heat recovery equipment
Ph: 918‐491‐9191 www.op�mus‐tulsa.com Email: info@op�mus‐tulsa.com
