Gases & Instrumentation - March/April 2011

immediately, followed by the next two, and, as they bring their tools in on their schedule and need additional capacity, we will put in the second group of four. When the plants are built, we will not only use the BSGS to back up the on-site plant, but we will also use that for peak demands. However, on the average, the majority of the gas will be coming from the plant.

G&I: This was a unique challenge. What about this installation are you proudest?

BF: One thing I am proud of is working for a company with a “can do” attitude. I have always been an idea guy and the 8 patents on my wall say that I had some good ideas. But after 26 years of doing this, the hard part is not having the idea, rather it is getting it implemented. And like I said, the rules of the game are going to be different when you are filling containers and can afford to take down time vs. an on-site plant where up-time reliability is the key.

G&I: On-site generation and reliability go hand-in-hand?

BF: Definitely. We have a group that actually looks at reliability and does a lot of modeling. Much of this has to do with what I call sparing. We know which things are going to have long lead times and of course you can put the spares on a shelf, and then, obviously, you then have installation down time. So one of the things that we said was, if it is going to be on the shelf, why not just install it. So now we have what we call “built-in spares,” so they are right there at a level of redundancy. This is the way the space program operates. The shuttle has three computers, two of which are the same and a third one that is a totally different. So if there’s a glitch, the second computer might be affected the same way. So they went to a third computer that was different.

BF: We are in some cases double and triple redundant in terms of the ability to keep the gas flowing. And if something unforeseen happens and Murphy comes into play, and a whole bunch of things happen in a cascade failure, we still have the BSGS backing up. Before on-site generation, we filled the ISO, the ISO filled the BSGS and the BSGS filled the pipeline. At Sanan, we integrated all this. The plant fills the pipeline, the BSGS fills the pipeline and backs up the plant filling the pipeline, and then we threw the storage tank into it as well.

G&I: Sounds complex.

BF: There is a high level of complexity from a control standpoint. We need to pipe it altogether and make sure it all makes sense and make sure the flows go where they are supposed to. Then there are issues about contamination and dead-legs that could cause problems.

G&I: What is the space frame for this project?

BF: We are looking for both plants being operational by the end of 2011. Hopefully, a year from now, we will have two plants on-line, and there’s some moves afoot here to potentially double that in various locations.

G&I: The LED market is growing rapidly so there will be a constant need for high purity NH3.

BF: Depending on what numbers you want to believe, there will be between 20 and 40 percent compound annual growth rate in the next 5 years. And the governments of the world are helping us. We have passed laws in the US and so has the EU, UK, and China. We are basically outlawing the incandescent lamp.