Please take us through your EPC Centers. How is this EPC Centers assisting in producing world class products for the Indian market?
Air Products is a world-leading industrial gases company. Focused on serving energy, environment and emerging markets, we provide essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing, and food and beverage.With global experience of more than 80 years, Air Products has significantly expanded its industrial gas operations and supply presence in India as an engineering company.
We operate two Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) centers in Pune, Maharashtra, and Vadodara, Gujarat. These EPC centers are focused on providing technology, engineering and project execution, for Air Products’ activities in India and other locations around the world. The EPC centers are currently supporting a variety of projects from Air Products’ core portfolio of products which includes Air Separation, Process Gases and Gasification product lines for India, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. This includes sourcing equipment in India, equipment fabrication, and module fabrication using Indian vendors to support our projects in India and elsewhere in the world. Quality is ensured by an India-based inspection team who are involved in hands-on inspection and coordinating with local third-party inspection agencies. The center has a significant presence of expediting personnel who ensure timely delivery from our suppliers to achieve an overall project schedule. The EPC center has a strategic sourcing arm which focuses on building long-lasting relationships and developing supply agreements with our suppliers in India to augment our execution.
Our construction, commissioning and start-up team consists of specialists and domain experts who bring with them a wealth of experience specific to the product lines. The team is experienced and self-reliant to execute projects in challenging site conditions of India. In addition to site experience, the construction team has developed expertise in planning and executing module-based fabrication at our module yard. This has bolstered the capabilities of the India EPC centers.
Within the Air Separation product line, the centers have led the engineering design, procurement, construction, commissioning and successful start-up of multipleliquid oxygen and nitrogen generators for our joint venture INOX Air Products. In addition, we are currently executing six more liquid oxygen and nitrogen generators at several strategic locations in India which are scheduled for successful start-up beginning in the third quarter of 2022.
For our customers in India, who have a need for industrial gases in a short span of time and lower capacity, Air Products has a standard plant product portfolio. This portfolio has an advantage of being a relatively simpler and standardized design enabling faster execution. The EPC centers have a separate dedicated taskforce to execute standard plants which produce industrial gases in a safe, proven and reliable mode. Several of these standardized plants have already been deployed in India with others in the pipeline.
Did the EPC Centers played any role in providing succor to the Covid-19 patients?
Our joint venture, INOX Air Products, supplies 60% of India’s medical oxygen demand and utilized their assets to the fullest capacity, which also include dramping up the production of medical oxygen. In addition, and in support of INOX Air Products, members of our India team coordinated with colleagues globally to identify and source liquid oxygen (LOX) containers for use in India at the height of the pandemic and to help address the shortage of these containers in the country. Several ISO LOX containers were airlifted from Europe, China, Thailand and The Middle East with the help of the Indian Air Force. A container filled with oxygen was also shipped via an ocean route from Oman. The additional containers have contributed to INOX Air Products’ability to distribute and supply medical oxygen to hospitals across the country. Air Products’ EPC centers are currently working on setting up several oxygen plants for INOX Air Products to cater to the rise in demand for medical grade oxygen.
Can you please share with us a few of the innovations taking place at the EPC center?
In the EPC world, innovation is not about developing new products, but it’s an act of optimizing and simplifying work processes and then integrating them across all EPC functions in order to optimize cost, schedule and quality, and to do so without compromising safety. Currently we have multiple innovations taking place at our EPC centers in India, such as: Standardization of repetitive part of a process plant to optimize the EPC cost and schedule; Maximizing the extent of modularization concepts to make module as ‘plug and play’; Developing various utilities and reports within smart tools to enhance the engineering quality and improve engineering and construction efficiency. (For example: Improved 3D catalogs, Automated View styles and improved Clash check utility); At the Control System lab, we are developing and testing self-customized control and safety system software programs to produce highly reliable and safe Air Separation and HyCO (Hydrogen & Carbon Monoxide) plants; Our EPC centers have access to data from more than 750 operating plants worldwide and we are using this derived data for continuously improving our EPC work process, methodology and tools to enhancing engineering and construction quality, optimizing cost, and improving plant safety.
It requires a high skill set to work in an EPC center. What are the skill nurturing training you provide?
At Air Products, we believe that capabilities building is an ongoing process of the employee life cycle and development. As the business grows, the opportunity to acquire more and more skills also grows. Hence it becomes important that upskilling becomes a part of the process versus a one-time activity.Having the right skill sets is key for any EPC business and we continuously strive for not only acquiring new skills, but also improving and sharpening these skills through various internal and external training programs. We have been using a lot of media, virtual case studies, demos, virtual mock rooms, and integrated technology to make the sessions more interesting and learning more fun and interactive. Technology and AI based tools have given a new approach to the way skills are acquired. We have specially customized training modules for generating various deliverables and performing activities for specific functions such as Control and Safety systems, Procurement and Construction management. For our Graduate Engineer trainees, we have specially designed training program, where we train them on the complete EPC lifecycle using specially customized and unique training programs; we have Arrange training on Cyber Security hosted by leading global agencies and have organize technical trainings by suppliers to update the team about latest trends in the industry and embed the new technologies in our EPC environment.
Which is the most challenging project you executed recently in India? Please share with us how you overcame the challenges?|
Air Products’ EPC Centers in India has successfully executed its flagship Industrial Gas Complex under a build, own and operate (BOO) contract with renowned public sector organization BPCL to deliver hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and syngas for their Integrated Refinery Complex in Kochi. Recently, we have successfully commissioned a syngas plant in the same location, that supplies product to the PDPP (Propylene Derivatives Petrochemical Project) of BPCL Kochi Refinery. This PDPP project is critical for the Indian economy in reducing the dependency on the importing of petrochemical products. The syngas plant was commissioned entirely during the Covid-19 pandemic period, overcoming lot of challenges and yet safely achieved onstream operations without any incidents. The EPC centers used innovative collaboration with colleague experts in United States for remote commissioning activities using communication technologies and have set a benchmark for future projects. Following Covid-19 protocols and regulations put forward by government authorities, the EPC centers delivered the project through its competent engineers and project execution team.
Innovation is a continuous process. What are the next gen innovations taking place at your end?
Innovation is a journey and not a destination, at the EPC centers we continue to develop innovative processes to complement our business strategies. We continue to enhance the use of customized Smart Plant Suite to integrate Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Project Management functions under one umbrella. We are updating our work processes to implement Construction Driven Engineering. We are taking advantage of know-how of process technology and data from our operating plants worldwide, and we continuously explore the possibilities of optimizing plant designs to become more competitive without compromising safety and quality.
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