VAHTERUS NEWS 1/2017
Dear Partner
Vahterus is the forerunner of plate & shell heat exchanger technology and a company known for its innovativeness. Technology developed by Vahterus is utilized worldwide in various demanding processes in the oil and gas, chemical and process, energy and refrigeration industries. Vahterus Oy Pruukintie 7 FI-23600 Kalanti, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 84 070 Subsidiaries Vahterus LLC, America Vahterus GmbH Vahterus Heat Exchangers Shanghai Co., Ltd Vahterus UK Ltd
www.vahterus.com
Publisher Vahterus Oy Editor-in-chief Sari Kesälä Editorial team Tracy Hakala, Katri Isotahdon, Mauri Kontu, Mikko Paana, Mikko Vilola Success stories and interviews Mediataivas Oy, Kapp Nederland, Aggreko plc
We at Vahterus have defined four values in our Dynamo strategy: Customer is number one - Will to succeed - Eagerness to innovate - Family Business. Here are some thought on the latter two.
Eagerness to innovate One of the base values of Vahterus’ strategy is ”Eagerness to innovate”. In the world of heat exchangers it sometimes feels, that finding new technological solutions is a slow process, at least when compared to for example electronic technology. The PSHE or Plate & Shell heat exchanger technology is still quite new in many heat transfer applications, after another 26 years. To our delight, we still keep finding new applications, where PSHE technology brings significant benefits to our clients - when compared to for example shell & tube heat exchanger solutions. The development of these new applications almost always requires changing and improving the Vahterus PSHE technology. Examples of the latest developments include the development of economically advantageous Combine or VES flooded evaporators combined with droplet separation of vaporized liquid. Another advancement is controlling high pressure gases or vapor pressure losses in PSHE heat exchangers. The third is the methods used for welding exchanger plates, and ensuring high quality results. All of these developments are results produced by our ongoing processes and focal points of our R&D. This requires both theoretical knowledge and practical testing in the laboratory. We plan to invest even more into our research and development operations, so that our PSHE products would solve your heat exchanger needs even more efficiently and economically in the future. One of the key factors in continuous improvement is nurturing the enthusiasm of the entire company staff. Last year, each of our employers submitted almost three initiatives, with the aim of improving our operations, processes, machines, equipment etc. We are still one of the machine shops that generate most initiatives in Finland. On the pages of this magazine, we will tell you how our organization is being developed We are still one of the machine to better meet your needs, our dear partners. We are hungry for continuous improvement. shops that generate most
Family business
This is one of our core values. I dare to take this topic into my editorial, because over Easter I received a message of sorrow after my mother passed away at the respectable age of 93. My parents’ encouragement and support have meant a great deal to me, especially in the beginning of my career as an entrepreneur. Not to forget my own family and others close to me. We have seen some difficult times, but also enjoyed many moments of joy together. Looking after your close ones, being active in the local community, justice and patriotism were the guiding principles that my parents instilled in me. They are values that give us all today a lot to think about, a lot to learn from. These are also values that can be applied to running a family business.
Together we succeed,
Layout Mainostoimisto Tekokuu Orders and feedback sales@vahterus.com
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initiatives in Finland.”
Mauri Kontu CEO, Vahterus Oy
Contents 04
The Age of the Internet of Things
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Metal lab at Vahterus key to ensuring product quality
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Green gold and dangerous submersibles
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Wooden containers, sailing ships and Porsches
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Developing Vahterus’ organisation further
Sarianna Kari
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Business area views
Working as a welder requires a good hand-to-eye coordination, a vision and a hardworking personality. Sarianna Kari in the cover has it all. She has been working in the final welding section of Vahterus since 2012. Welding is precise and demanding work which seals the durability of the product. Sarianna thinks that the best things in her work are the versatility and seeing the results made by hands. A welder can improve the knowhow continuously throughout the career, both in handling metals and learning new techniques. Sarianna first studied a degree in the commercial trade but then decided to change the field to welding in Winnova’s recruitment training. The practical training in Vahterus was useful for Sarianna as she was regularized as a welder in the end of her training period.
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IIAR-conference & expo
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CASE Vestmannaeyjar
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CASE Hervanta heating plant
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CASE Kapp Nederland
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CASE Aggreko
Cover
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he Internet of Things (IoT) refers to embedded computing power and networking capability of the physical objects through the use of sensors, processors and software that can collect, actuate and transmit data about the products and their environment. The gathered data can then be analyzed to optimize, develop and design products, processes and customer services. In the emerging age of the Internet of Things, all products are seen as software products. The value of the code, computing power and connectivity, may in the future determine the value potential of a product more than the physical product itself. The future effectiveness of an offering is related to how well it packages the learning from past activities, other use cases and from other similar products and how it increases the users options for value creation. Connectivity also enables some functions of the product to exist outside the physical product in the product system, the product cloud. A product or a service should today be pictured as a node in a network with links to supplementary services and complementary features surrounding the product. The task today is to visualize the product in the broadest sense possible.
Visualizing these new connections changes the strategic opportunities dramatically. The study of isolated parts offers little help in understanding how connected parts work in combination and what emerges as the result of network connections. What new technologies are making possible for manufacturing industries is a much, much richer repertoire of business opportunities than what we were used to in a traditional industrial firm. The customer of the industrial age was seen as a recipient of value. Enterprises also viewed customers through the lens of a fairly uniform set of product features, leading to customers being seen as having relatively uniform needs. But even commodity products are always a bundle of use contexts, buying patterns, complementary goods and delivery options. Just because a product is a commodity doesn’t mean that customers can’t be diverse in the ways they use the product. Companies used to have no mechanisms for connecting with the customers/users in order to understand and influence what was going on. Digital technologies are now changing this. When a customer teaches a firm what he wants or how he wants it, the customer and the firm are also cooperating on the sale of a product, changing the industrial approach to sales and marketing. The marketing and sales departments used to be the customer’s proxy, with the exclusive role of interpreting changing customer needs. Digital business necessarily transforms the marketing function and sales specialists by formally integrating the customer also into every other part of the organization. The customer of tomorrow will interact with, and is going to influence every process.
In the emerging age of the Internet of Things, all products are seen as software products. ”
The age of the Internet of Things 4
As the customer’s need set is expanded beyond the preset features of the physical offering through software, the definition of the product changes and becomes more complex. The more complex the product, the more opportunities there are for Vahterus to learn something that will later make a difference for the company and the customers of Vahterus. The Internet of Things and technological intelligence in general, create transformative opportunities for more efficient and more sustainable, resource-wise, practices and also higher margins. Esko Kilpi Managing Director, Esko Kilpi Company
METAL LAB AT VAHTERUS KEY TO ENSURING PRODUCT QUALITY
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or almost thirty years, Vahterus has been the forerunner of Plate & Shell heat exchanger technology. Vahterus customers have come to rely on the great quality products and the innovative solutions the company provides. Vahterus’ heat transfer plates have been on the market for a long time, and to an untrained eye, the products have seemingly changed very little over the years. Behind the scenes, though, there are ongoing research and development, quality control and iteration processes running with high determination into exceeding customer expectations and ensuring superior product quality. At the heart of ensuring this customer excellence, lies the uncompromising work done by the quality engineers and technicians in Vahterus metal labs. These hard-core professionals use various methods in order to analyze and dig deep into the products by essentially breaking them into pieces to see what could possibly cause them to break down in use. Multiple scenarios and theories are tested in order to understand causal relations behind how the product reacts in different circumstances. In the extremely rare case of customers reporting a broken device, this work ensures that the failure analysis made is thorough and it is possible to point out what exactly caused the break down.
The test results, certified test reports and answers are used on a daily on a basis for research and new product development purposes in the company.
Hard-core testing methods for hard-core products In practice, quality assurance is hard work. The metal lab at Vahterus is fully equipped to prepare test specimens and samples and conduct demanding metal tests performed through destructive testing methods. The engineers also run cyclic tests by building up pressure and lowering it again for as long as the heat transfer plate breaks down - and then analyse the part of the breakdown, the details and the quality of the weld. The other option for destructive testing is to increase the pressure for as long as the construction breaks down. Vahterus also conducts random tests in its metal lab for the weld quality of the heat transfer plates in production. After collecting random samples, the production engineer evaluates the product on various aspects, auditioning the geometry, seam, and overall quality of the manufacturing - for example determining whether the weld penetration has been sufficient. Vahterus also tests pressure vessel welding seams in the metal laboratory.
Lean and agile thinking in ensuring quality When it comes to heat transfer plates, and many, many other things as well, the quality in the product in most cases boils down to the quality of the weld. If the welding fails, the product fails, and therefore it is critical for the business to ensure that it indeed holds. In the metal lab, as described before, multiple testing methods are being used to ensure the quality and performance of the products. The lab has been running for a few years now, and large investments have been made in the recent years in equipping it with the highest standard devices. Furthermore, there are three dedicated people running the lab and its procedures. The people, the special equipment and the machinery are large investments that do not essentially provide anything but knowledge. It is in the knowledge, where the core for product innovation and quality lies. Knowing more enables constant development, improvement, new ideas and ways of applying the old. This work makes Vahterus the forerunner in its own field of business and in its product development - lean and agile thinking where many only see rigid processes. Valtteri Haavisto Customer Service Director, Vahterus Oy
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Green gold and dangerous submersibles F
inland is celebrating 100 years of independence. The small country has come a long way from receiving development aid from wealthier allies after the 1st World War, to donating aid to countries in need. In the first years of its independence, Finland was among the poorest countries of Europe. The country received development aid loans from the World Bank as late as the 1970s. The development of industry and exports had a key role in Finland’s structural change that has been considered the fastest in Europe: the country grew rapidly from agrarian into an industrial society, and built a strong service economy with forestry leading the exports. Hundreds of saw mills, groundwood plants, paperboard machines, plywood, pulp and paper mills were built in Finland. Finnish children were taught to appreciate “the green gold” our national treasure. The labour and raw material shortages following the world wars hindered the development of industry. War reparations were also a burden on the economy but on the other hand also accelerated the manufacturing industry. 535 different kinds of vessels, 52,500 electric motors and 30 manufacturing plants were made and handed over to the Soviet Union. Finland was the only country in the world to pay the war reparations imposed on it by the Soviet. Finland’s trade relations with the Soviet Union remained active. It was Finnish shipyards that built the vessels carrying the Mir submersibles that caused a conflict during the Cold War in 1987. The submersibles designed
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in the collaboration between Rauma-Repola and the Russian Academy of Sciences were state-of-the-art technology of their time: their maximum depth was 6000 metres. Even today, very few deep-submergence vehicles can manage a manned dive of more than 3000 metres. After discovering that Finns had made a diving chamber able to make a 6000 metre dive, the USA tried to stop the transport of the submersibles to the Soviet Union. Vice president George Bush wrote a letter to the Finnish president Mauno Koivisto expressing his concern over Rauma-Repola causing a serious worldwide safety threat. Due to pressure from the CIA and Pentagon, Rauma-Repola Oceanics was forced to discontinue the manufacturing of submersibles and the development of oceanic technology. In the 1990s, the Finnish economy started relying more heavily on mobile communications. Nokia, which had started as a rubber manufacturer, quickly became the world’s leading mobile phone company with a market value of more than EUR 200 billion. 250 mil-
lion units of the Nokia 1110 phone were sold, which makes it the most sold mobile phone in the world. The forestry sector remains strong in the now 100-year-old Finland, with Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene leading the way. Metal industry companies such as Wärtsilä, Valmet, Outokumpu and Kone, which all also benefited from war reparation business, are now international corporations. Following in Nokia’s footsteps, new success stories have emerged in cleantech and the gaming industry. Large Finnish energy companies are investing in the development of renewable sources of energy. New innovations and jobs are being created in small and medium-sized companies that are growing and entering the international market. The Finnish economy has experienced a 15-fold increase since the beginning of the country’s independence in 1917. In the 21st century Finland is one of the most affluent countries in the world where the education, healthcare and pension systems are among the best in the world. Finland is constantly ranked in the Top 5 and Top 10 in international comparisons, whether it is freedom of the press, happiness or equality that is being measured. As the Finnish saying goes, “To be born in Finland is like winning the lottery”, but instead of lottery balls, perhaps it was the gears of industry that generated the prosperity of our country. Terhi Raumonen Journalist
Uusikaupunki 400 years
Wooden containers, sailing ships and Porsches
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hile Finland celebrates its 100th anniversary, Uusikaupunki is 400 years old already. The small coastal town is known for its beautiful islands and wooden houses, but also for its diverse and innovative industry, without which the town may never have been founded. The founding of the town was a direct result of the early industrialisation of the area and connections abroad. As early as the Middle Ages, people would sail from all over Europe to trade in Kalanti. The merchants of Turku and Rauma, racked with jealousy, told the King of Sweden about these unauthorised markets held in the village of Männäinen every Saturday, which resulted in an order to move the market to Rauma. But the people in Kalanti refused to comply. In May 1616, King Gustav II Adolf finally arrived in Kalanti to meet with the protesting merchants and to see the market himself. The
conqueror king, known as “the Lion of the North” and admired by Napoleon himself, was so impressed by what he saw that he founded a new town for the people in the area.
Glass Industry & World-class Wooden Containers Foreign trade had been practised in the area for centuries: hundreds of shiploads of wooden containers were manufactured and exported to Europe every year. There was a big market for good-quality wooden containers in the Hanseatic cities: before metal and cardboard boxes became widely used, everything was packed in wooden containers. The manufacturing of containers, which began in the early Middle Ages, was done in stages with each village specialising in a particular stage. In Ancient Egypt, it was the pyramid builders that first invented the benefits of standardizing. In Finland, the innovation can be attributed to the wooden container manufacturers of the Southwest. The Swedish 16th-century historian Olaus Magnus was so impressed by the techniques they had developed that he likened their craftmanship to the renowned glass industry of the Murano Islands. The Uusikaupunki glass factory, the first of its kind in Finland, was founded in 1681. August Nordenskiöld, another pioneer of the 18th century, attempted to create gold by making a philosopher’s stone.
Strong Industrial Heritage Keeps the Town Running Uusikaupunki became widely known as a shipyard town in the 19th cen-
tury. The town had several dockyards that manufactured sailing boats. Uusikaupunki also had the second largest merchant navy in the country, holding 1/3 of all Finland’s ocean sailing fleet. By the 20th century, the time of wooden ships had come to an end. Isak Isaksson, described by his peers as “an impatient and impulsive man with a vivid imagination”, founded a shipyard in Uusikaupunki in 1891. Today, its tradition is carried on by Uudenkaupungin Työvene Oy. Isaksson was a visionary who also founded the stone industry on the Uusikaupunki islands. Local varieties of granite such as “Birkhall Grey” and “Balmoral Red” were shipped all over the world to be used for cobblestone paving and statues, bridges and tomb stones. Suomen Kiviteollisuus is still in business and exporting stone to more than 30 countries. One of the best-known success stories of the local industry is the Uusikaupunki automotive plant. Saab 96, the first passenger car made in Finland, was made there in 1969. To date, 1.2 million cars, including 230,000 Porsches, have been manufactured there. At the moment, the plant is manufacturing MercedesBenz cars. The coastal town has always been the small giant of innovation and international trade. These are the roots that Vahterus Oy connects with. Terhi Raumonen Journalist
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DEVELOPING VAHTERUS’ ORGANISATION FURTHER
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ustomer feedback is a priority for Vahterus. An annual customer satisfaction survey provides important information about what customers think about our products and services. The results of the survey conducted towards the end of 2016 were delightfully positive. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) indicates how likely customers are to recommend the company. The satisfaction of Vahterus’ customers is shown by the NPS value 80, while the average score is 33 in the comparator database of the researcher. - Customers’ evaluations of our operations delighted us, and our co-operation has clearly progressed to an even more positive direction, says the Vahterus CEO Mauri Kontu. Along with positive feedback, the survey also highlighted important development proposals which are, in fact, already being launched at Vahterus. - Our customers want even faster service and we’re willing to improve. We are strongly investing in the future and need to gain momentum for example in the area of digitalisation, says Kontu.
Bringing Experts Together Benefits the Customer Based on the customer satisfaction survey, Vahterus started to develop their organisational structure. In order to offer even faster and more diverse service, Vahterus launched a new Customer Service Center that brings together experts from various fields of expertise. In addition to machinery and equipment technology, the Technology Center takes responsibility for digitalisation in cooperation with the IT department. To get an even wider perspective for bringing the company forward, two new members were added to the Vahterus management team. This led to new expertise in management and more divided responsibilities. - The main message of the organisational changes is that we have a growth strategy, and our goal is to strengthen the entire organisation. We want to convince our customers that we are the right partner for them, emphasises Kontu.
Feeding User Experiences Directly to R&D Customer feedback will reach the right people at Vahterus even faster in the future, as the After Sales, Quality and R&D depart-
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ments will group together to form the new Customer Service Center. - The idea is to get people working on the customer interface closer to R&D and Quality. In practice, real experiences from the users of our heat exchangers will reach our product development people faster, explains Valtteri Haavisto, the Customer Service Director at Vahterus. The new Customer Service Center offers better support for the Vahterus sales team, and speeds it up the problem-solving process in customer cases. - We can perform heat transfer and pressure loss tests as well as metallurgical tests. We strive to respond quickly to customer feedback, says the Vahterus R&D Director Jyrki Sonninen.
New Chemical Cleaning Service Underway
Valtteri Haavisto
Vahterus keeps actively developed their range of services. This year Vahterus will launch a new chemical cleaning service. The service team tests the customers’ heat exchangers both before and after the cleaning, and perform the required maintenance and repairs. - Our aim is to provide our customers with innovative solutions and service throughout the life cycle of the heat exchanger, Haavisto says.
Striving for Even Better Level of Service As a part of developing the company, changes were also made to the production organisation. Rami Anttila was named as the Design Manager, and he will be heading the Vahterus Design and Project Departments. In order to improve level of service, operations models of projects are being standardized both with customers and internally. Production Director Matti Kontu will be charge of the entire Design, Procurement and Production sections in future. The reliability of supply and lead-time have progressed over the last few years. Vahterus has been able to meet the customers’ time of the delivery requirements well over the last few years. - Our level of service has been good, but we still want to improve our order-delivery process. With these changes, we will focus especially on developing the design process during next few years. This will help us to improve our reliability of supply and shorten our lead-times, says Matti Kontu.
– Our aim is to provide our customers with innovative solutions and service throughout the life cycle of the heat exchanger.”
Matti Kontu
New Focus on Digitalisation at Vahterus
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Tapio Levanen
igitalisation requires reforming operational practices and digitising both internal and external processes and services. At Vahterus, the first steps of digitalisation focus on streamlining internal processes and creating new electronic tools for customer service. A project is also underway to equip our heat exchangers with new IoT technology. The optimising process of Vahterus’ internal processes is commenced by interviewing employees to gain insight on which systems and programs they now need in their work. Based on the interviews, a system description is created to minimise overlapping actions. - Data is entered into the systems only once and automatically distributed onwards into other systems. The optimisation should shorten the delivery times for customer, Vahterus’ IT Manager Tapio Levanen predicts. For Vahterus, investing in both existing and new customers is important. When it comes to online customer service, various
options are being explored in order to create even better customer experience.
Adding Intelligence to Vahterus Heat Exchangers The aim of the IoT project is to develop intelligent heat exchangers. For example temperature and pressures sensors could be installed in the heat exchanger already in the factory. Customers could then easily connect the sensors to their own automation systems. - Measurement results by the sensors could be monitored from the cloud, whereby also specialists in Vahterus would get the information how the product is being used. Adding intelligence to heat exchangers could also make a longer warranty period possible in the future, says Vahterus’ Technology Director Paavo Pitkänen. The IoT project is currently in pilot phase, and at the moment Vahterus is looking for customers with applications that the IoT functionalities could be tested with.
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Business area views Chemical and process
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eading economic magazines and chemicals industry publications it is coming a picture of really challenging situation in the chemical and process industries. Despite these difficulties Vahterus was able to reach good result chemicals industry sales in 2016. The challenging situation can be attributed to the stalling growth of global economy and the persistently low price of crude oil. Although some companies have attained good results, dwindling turnovers and demand have cut investments in new facilities. Merger preparations have also put the brakes on new investments. In 2015 and 2016, acquisitions and divisions of chemical companies has experienced strong growth. The merger of Dow Chemical and DuPont, for example, will create a company larger than German BASF in terms of turnover. The political climate is also always a factor in large-scale investments. The result of the United States presidential election and Brexit have brought increased uncertainty to investment decisions. So then, why were sales to the chemicals industry so good in
2016? Our clients have kept existing facilities running and worked to improve process reliability and energy efficiency. In these measures, Vahterus products have proven effective. In Botswana, for example, slurry coolers replaced traditional gasketted plate heat exchangers, and the investment had a great impact on the facility maintenance needs and cleanliness. Increasingly, clients are also replacing traditional shell&tube heat exchangers with Plate & Shell technology, thereby improving the facility’s energy efficiency and capacity. In fact, Plate & Shell technology has become one of the most interesting heat exchanger technologies in the industry. The HTRI (Heat Transfer Research Institute) is in the process of testing Vahterus products in their laboratories in Texas. The HTRI is a leading heat transfer research organization owned by major companies in the chemicals, petrochemical and oil and gas industries. HTRI software is commonly used tool to design shell&tube heat exchangers and the goal is to have possibility of select Vahterus Plate & Shell heat exchangers in HTRI software in the future. However, as always and in the future, Vahterus heat transfer specialists are available for you to provide heat exchanger solutions for your needs. Marko Rantala Business Manager, Vahterus Oy
Refrigeration
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limate change has been a fixture in news headlines for the past few years, and one of the most discussed topics has been the different measures of climate change mitigation. Now it seems that a temperature increase of two degrees is a generally accepted matter of fact. However, ozone depletion is no longer as widely discussed as it was only 10 years ago. Could this be because of the drastic decline in the use of refrigerants with high ODP? Climate change is much more than melting ice caps and rising sea levels. Will some parts of the earth become inhabitable? Some scenarios have already painted pictures of new mass exoduses.
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Energy recovery and reducing the use of fossil fuels are some examples of climate change mitigation measures. The refrigeration industry must join in these efforts and increase the use of low GWP refrigerants. Switching to natural refrigerants is a solution with far-reaching benefits. The last few years have seen an increase in the development of new technologies for heat pumps, compressors and heat exchangers, and other such devices that use natural refrigerants. Increasing sums of money have been invested in industrial energy recovery appliances, despite the difficult economic situation. In short, new technologies are needed and we must do our part to support the progress. Heikki Oksanen Business Manager, Vahterus Oy
Energy
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he energy industry has been in a heavy turmoil in the recent years due to the sudden drop in oil prices in 2014. Many projects have been on hold and investment decisions have been left waiting for better times. Since the low point last year, the oil prices are now slowly but steadily climbing back towards the former levels, and are expected to grow even still. Now, with the oil price stabilizing over 50$/barrel, many projects are starting to move forward, investment decisions are made and sales closings look brighter. Currently LNG:s are largely driving the energy industry growth, as we are seeing an increase in the their production and demand. Both FLNG and LNG productions are on a slow rise, and there are business opportunities in production plants as well as regasification terminals. Environmental regulations, such as the Baltic Sea sulfur directive are a big driving factor for LNG fueled ships. The fuel economy is changing for good. Shipping is moving quickly towards LNGs, and travel industry is following suit. In the Heat and Power industry, the low energy prices have decreased the rate of new plants being built. Their products have not been selling as they used to, and many of the investments have been on hold. As environmental trends and reduction of CO2 are pushing new projects forward in the biomass power plant market, there is room
for new opportunities. EU regulations as well as public opinions from many directions support this trend over the the traditional power plants and energy production methods, and biomass-produced energy will be a trend of the future. The low gas prices have, in turn, worked in a favor of gas turbines and engines and this sector is in a steady growth as an increasing number of electric power is produced by gas turbines and engines. The turbulence and changes in the energy market have been tough on the companies, but the future is showing improvement and steady, albeit for the moment slow, growth. Success will require an in-depth analysis and ability to discover business opportunities where many do not see any. Agility will also be key in the future, and for Vahterus this means relying strongly on the resilience of the organisation and the ability to adapt in the changing environment. Tobias Häggblom Business Manager, Vahterus Oy
IIAR-CONFERENCE & EXPO IIAR 2017 brought together the North American Ammonia Refrigeration community in February, with this year’s exhibition being held in San Antonio, Texas. The Vahterus Team in attendance consisted of our key Americas personnel – Elizabeth Corcoran and Jonathan Pascoe - supported ably by our colleagues from Finland/Vahterus Oy; namely Mauri Kontu (CEO), Heikki Oksanen (Refrigeration Business Manager) and Mikko Tuomainen (Key Account Manager). All were kept very busy with excellent traffic passing through our booth every day. This exhibition affords not only the opportunity to meet with our existing client base, but to connect with new potential partners. New contacts made at IIAR are already helping expand our business in the Americas region! 2017 was a heavy equipment show with many of the key players displaying refrigeration packages, numerous containing Vahterus equipment, reaffirming our position in this market as a leader in heat transfer solutions. As each year passes, the community at this exhibition becomes larger and reaches wider, notably into the South American community. In San Antonio it was a great pleasure to see our Argentinian, Brazilian, Co-lombian, Peruvian and Chilean collaborators, as well as those from the USA and Canada.
Elizabeth Corcoran, Heikki Oksanen, Jonathan Pascoe, Mauri Kontu and Mikko Tuomainen. To those with whom we shared time and discussions, thanks again for all your positivity. To those who we may have missed, we are always here to support your needs, so please contact us when you may have any heat transfer requirements. See you next year in Colorado! Dr. Jonathan Pascoe President, Vahterus Americas
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CASE
Success stories Vestmannaeyjar
Large Heat Pump brings heat from the ocean to a volcanic island
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ohnson Controls delivered a large heat pump system with Vahterus heat exchangers to boost a district heating system that formerly extracted heat from fresh lava on a volcanic island near the southern coast of Iceland. The lava temperature has been reduced over the last few decades and the volcanic heat could only be utilized for ten years shortly after volcanic eruption that created havoc in the island back in 1973. Icelandic local energy company HS Veitur hf operates a thermal energy plant in Vestmannaeyjar (Westmen islands). The company distributes electricity, hot water and fresh water in several locations in Iceland. Houses on the island were heated with coal in the early 1900’s, then oil was used for heating and finally hydropower electricity from mainland Iceland since 1962. In 1973, a volcano erupted on the main island of Vestmannaeyjar, spreading lava over half of the only town on the island. Sveinbjörn Jónsson from Reykjavik came up with the idea to utilize the heat from the lava for space heating and the world´s first and only volcanic district heating system was created. By 1988 the heat energy from the lava mass had reduced, and extracting energy for residential heating was no longer feasible. The area was forced to revert back to an electrical heating only.
The new setup can be expected to provide over 40 GWh/year of free ocean heat releasing that same amount of electricity for other more valuable activities in the island.”
Heat pump to boost the heating station As the electricity supply is limited on the island, HS Veitur hf begun searching for alternative energy sources to improve the situation. Their initial idea was to optimize the energy consumption of the water heating process. The solution they chose was a large 10 MW Heat Pump system built by Sabroe factory in Denmark with Vahterus heat exchangers. The new setup can be expected to provide over 40 GWh/year of free ocean heat releasing that same amount of electricity for other more valuable activities in the island. The usage of heat pumps requires around 75% less energy than the former boiler, which means that the new heating setup will use much less electricity every year. This is a significant improvement from both ecological and economical point of view.
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New Setup for Maximum Efficiency The heating system is circular (closed loop): hot water is delivered to the Ívar Atlason, HS Veitur hf homes and companies, and after use it gets pumped back to the boiling station for reheating. The system is built with 4 identical heat pump units, each with 2,5 MW heating capacity, designed as a flooded NH3 economised system. In the heat pumps, water is heated from 34°C to 77°C. To achieve the highest possible efficiency, the heated circuit first enters the subcooler and condenser. After this, the flow is divided in to three: to one de-superheater and two oil coolers in parallel. The design of the system allows HS Veitur to achieve temperatures approximately 8-9°C higher than the condensing temperature, resulting in a superior COP.
Demand for Large Application Systems on the Rise The setup sold by Sabroe Nordic for the Vestmannaeyjar area is an example of a large heating system project consisting of four Twin-Heat pumps and offering a total heating capacity of 10MW. Projects of this scale prove that natural resources can be put to use with the help of technology, and thus provide substantial energy savings. With the constant challenge for finding more ecological alternatives in the energy market, the large Heat Pump application packages will likely face a growing demand around the world in the future.
CASE
Success stories Hervanta heating plant
A compact and effective Vahterus heat exchanger is the heart of a district cooling network Sami Majlund and Kimmo Koivisto, Tampereen Sähkölaitos
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ahterus supplied a total of five heat exchangers to a heating plant constructed in 2015. The Vahterus heat exchangers help make the plant more efficient while reducing the plant’s carbon footprint and construction costs. In 2014, Tampereen Sähkölaitos published a decision to invest in a heating plant to be built in the neighbourhood of Hervanta in Tampere, Finland. The plant is a district heating plant based on fluidized bed technology. The benefits of this technology include the option of using fuels with lower heating value, the most notable of which are timber-based forest processed chips, sawdust and bark. The Hervanta plant produces heat and domestic hot water for about 20,000 people. With the
new plant, Tampereen Sähkölaitos wanted first and foremost to reduce the use of natural gas in district heat production and, as a result, also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Heat exchangers reducing greenhouse gas emissions Heat exchangers can be used in a range of applications in heating plants to meet different needs. End users of heat exchangers using the Plate & Shell technology developed by Vahterus enjoy such benefits as long service life and maintenance-free operation. Vahterus supplied a total of five heat exchangers of different sizes and capacities to the plant. The most important of the exchangers is the large, approximately 45 MW district heating heat exchanger located between the plant’s boiler water and district heating circuit. The four smaller exchangers represent the Compact range. Their applications include internal heat exchanger, bottom ash cooling ex-
changer, yard heating heat exchanger as well as washer condensate heat exchanger. The smaller heat exchangers are meant to boost the chip-fuelled plant’s own process and reduce the carbon footprint.
Reliable heat exchangers are ideal for heating plants Vahterus heat exchangers are extremely reliable and ideal for high temperatures thanks to their tight and fully welded plate packs. If a fault happens in the plant, the plant’s boiler circuit may come down quickly, which strains sealed and soldered heat exchangers. Vahterus heat exchangers, however, require no sealants, so they are almost entirely maintenance-free. Thanks to their reliable structure, several energy companies have chosen a Vahterus heat exchanger as the application to be placed between the boiler water and district heating circuit. Moreover, Vahterus heat exchangers can be installed directly into the process, eliminating the need for intermediate circuits.
Compact size packs a punch Compared to tube heat exchangers, Plate & Shell heat exchangers are considerably smaller and require less space. As such, choosing Plate & Shell heat exchangers can bring the construction costs of the entire heating plant down. The 45 MW exchanger, which is the largest in the Hervanta plant, has already gained positive attention among the visitors to the plant. - Our visitors have been impressed by the exchanger’s capacity in comparison to its size. It does, after all, take up very little space, says Kimmo Koivisto, the Operations Manager of Tampereen Sähkölaitos.
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CASE
Success stories
Kapp Nederland
Vahterus Plate & Shell Heat Exchangers for a Chemical Plant In Antwerp
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or a chemical plant in Antwerp, Kapp received an order for two separate Vahterus Plate & Shell Heat Exchangers. The applications for the heat exchangers are not extremely difficult however the end user is very pleased to have found this type of heat exchanger which is completely new to this plant.
of the unit is cyclic. Due to chemical reason, a welded heat exchanger was required. The Vahterus Plate & Shell is welded and doesn’t contain any seals.
Plate & Shell -replacement
Tailored solution The first heat exchanger, type 4HH-200/2/1, is in use as a heater. The product needs to be heated to prevent it from hardening during transportation. The product, supplied to a client in Germany, is transported in insulated containers. However, sometimes the
The end user is very pleased to have found this type of heat exchanger.
trip might just take a little bit longer than intended. To avoid hardening of the product, it is loaded at an elevated temperature (130°C). This is where the heater is being used. The loading is not a continuous activity. To keep the heat exchanger from blocking when idle, the warm product is circulated through the heat exchanger from the tank. The actual use
Striving for perfection
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or more than seven years, Ray Nahar is a driven Project Engineer for Kapp Netherlands. Ray is the perfect fit for complex projects where his communication skills are essential to match the demands of the customer to the production of Vahterus Heat Exchanger. A perfect planning and service are ensured. In all his projects, he strives for the highest quality. That means he will be a pain in the neck if he has to, both for Vahterus and the customer.
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When you ask Ray about the cooperation with Vahterus he becomes enthusiastic. “It feels like we’re part of the Vahterus family”, he says, “The quick and informal way of communicating is perfect… I often give them a quick call, just to get a heads up.” Vahterus is always available. “The diversity of customers and projects is what I like the most in my job”, says Ray. His personal motto: “Trust me when I say, leave it to Ray.”
The second heat exchanger (5HH400/4/4) will be used as a preheater for a reactor. Steam condensate is used as a heating medium. The new Plate & Shell is a replacement for a Block type heat exchanger, which was not suited for the cyclic duty and in this case, it was leaking. A situation not acceptable in the chemical environment. The engineering department of the chemical company was not familiar with the Vahterus Plate & Shell heat exchanger technology. However, they were very pleased to learn Vahterus is producing this type of Heat Exchanger for over 25 years.
CASE
Success stories
Aggreko
Worlds largest temporary power generation company trusts Vahterus PSHE-systems
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ggreko plc is the world’s largest temporary power generation company, and a major supplier of temperature control equipment. It is headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. Aggreko provides power generation and temperature control solutions to customers who need them either very quickly, or for a short length of time.
Aggreko offers tailor made temporary heating/cooling solutions Partnering with for process industry. Kapp Minimizing down time The down times during an unplanned maintenance or even planned equipment replacements can have great economic impact for any production process. Aggreko offers tailor made temporary heating/cooling solutions for process industry for an uninterrupted production to maintain the production rates. One of the chemical plants in Europe was planning a major change in their existing condensation system and contacted Aggreko’s Process Services Department (APS) to design and implement a temporary low temperature (-40°C) cooling solution system to keep up the production running during the months where the maintenance works will be carried out.
Aggreko commissioned in two weeks a temporary low temperature condensing system using shell and plate type heat exchangers, low temperature chillers and control system to maintain a safe and reliable condensation system. Heat transfer engineering was realised in partnership with Kapp, official representative of Vahterus. On projects with place constrains and/or demanding process conditions, APS-Europe can take the advantage of PSHE type Vahterus heat exchangers when implementing heating/cooling solutions.
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THE
THE ORIGINAL
PLATE &PLATE & SHELL SHELL HEAT EXCHANGERS
HEAT EXCHANGERS