Continuity in gas supply thanks to uninterrupted power supply

Based in the Botlek area, Air Products supplies gas to various sectors in the Netherlands and Belgium. These include -among others- the production of gases such as acetylene and fuel gases, Argon, dry ice, gases for the food industry, Helium, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, gases for welding, cutting and lasering, medical gases, Nitrogen, Syngas, Hydrogen, Oxygen Neon, Krypton and Xenon. In addition, Air Products supplies steam, boiler water, power and hydrogen. No wonder Air Products can be found next to blast furnaces worldwide, supplying oxygen. Entire industries rely on Air Products' supplies, including those in the Netherlands and Belgium. Reason enough for Air Products to take power supply seriously. To ensure its continuity, Air Products works together with ELINEX Power Solutions in Rotterdam.

ELINEX and Air Products in the picture together for 23 years

We speak to Eduard Mensink, Head Electrical Technician and Bastien Houben, Senior Electrical Technician, employed by Air Products in Rotterdam for 35 and 12 years respectively. The men are responsible for the maintenance, safety and replacement of all electrical equipment. Preventing and resolving faults also falls under their competence; for Bastien, shutdowns are added. "Emergency power supply also falls under our management," Eduard explains. "We have several UPS systems at our disposal. We have a maintenance contract with ELINEX for our emergency power equipment; we have had a relationship with them since early 2000. ELINEX performs maintenance, replaces UPSs where and when necessary, makes new deliveries and provides us with battery changes." Xander, account manager at ELINEX, says that all UPSs at Air Products have a 24/7 response time of up to 4 hours. "This applies to both the Rotterdam and Ghent departments, in Belgium," Xander explains.

Pursuing uniformity

ELINEX's latest delivery to Air Products resulted from a route started in 2019, to introduce one and the same emergency power solution in multiple locations. "Maintaining consistency creates uniformity," Bastien explains. To which, Eduard adds, "We switched to Huawei 19-inch modules as UPSs, we selected a uniform cabinet for that. This cabinet was assembled entirely to our specifications. We now have 15 of such uniform cabinets at our premises." Xander explains that in this case these are half-height server cabinets with UPS, battery module, a security module, alarms and the necessary circuit breakers."

The bypass systems are located outside these cabinets, Eduard explains. Xander: "In addition, a Centiel 3-phase system of 10 kVA was supplied. Server cabinets are usually a single-phase system. We gave a demonstration of the 3-phase system to Air Products so that internal consultations could take place at Air Products." Bastien continues: "We are now looking at product level to see if this works in practice for us, we are conducting a test case.

Industrial UPS systems

"Over the past three years, we have supplied three Tecned industrial UPS systems in Rotterdam and Ghent. These have been tailor-made for Air Products, completely to their specific requirements. For example, these UPS systems use natural cooling and the input and output are galvanically separated from each other," says Xander. "This system can also be used as a rectifier, AC in and DC out.

Emergency power is available at all critical points at Air Products. Bastien: "We have thus guaranteed the power supply for all critical monitoring and control processes of the plant. If there is a power failure or malfunction, no one is in the dark."

About the cooperation with ELINEX, the men from Air Products are very satisfied. "Always excellent contact and a fixed point of contact. Short lines of communication and quick help," says Eduard. "ELINEX works brand-independently, allowing us to purchase all services from one source. Once a year, a check is carried out on all systems from ELINEX. Thanks to ELINEX, we can guarantee our continuity"