 |
 |
| 01 |
02 |
|
 |
| Uniqema
Shutdown Success |
Helping
Eastman Chemical Succeed
Uniqema Shutdown Success
When chemical manufacturer Uniqema held a shutdown
for their speciality alkoxylates plant in June 2003,
they set SembCorp Utilities UK (SembUtilities UK)
a challenging task and provided an opportunity for
our employees to demonstrate their commitment to
deliver and meet the demanding requirements of our
customers.
The brief by Fraser Thomson, the Uniqema Manufacturing
Manager to SembUtilities UK was to carry out inspection
and maintenance work on five utilities supply lines.
This task was made even more challenging when the
shutdown dates for the steam and compressed air
pipelines were changed just a week before the shutdown
commenced.
Brian Pattison, the SembUtilities UK technician
responsible for coordinating the work, said: “We
were left with an exceedingly challenging job as
both pipelines needed to be back on-line within
seven days, leaving only five working days to complete
the job.
To add to the pressure – if you’ll pardon
the pun – compressed air was required on the
plant until the last minute prior to the shutdown.”
Due to the tight turnaround of the planned assurance
work, Brian and the SembUtilities UK team were on
continuous standby, co-ordinating with the Uniqema
Plant Manager and his staff for a quick start once
the line became available. The team rose to the
occasion and met Uniqema’s needs. Despite significant
additional work during the course of the shutdown,
they managed to schedule the workload in such a
way that the job was completed on time and production
started on schedule.
“Without the professionalism, dedication
and determination of the team from SembUtilities
UK, we would not have completed the work in the
time required, incurring loss of production and
income. We very much appreciated their efforts.”
Fraser Thomson, Manufacturing
Manager, Uniqema.
Helping
Eastman Chemical Succeed
Besides providing utilities and services
from multi-utility facilities, SembUtilities also
builds, owns and operates facilities at customer
sites and provides in-house operations and maintenance
services onsite.
The wastewater treatment plant at Eastman Chemical
Singapore is one such example. SembUtilities built,
owns and operates a dedicated wastewater treatment
plant for Eastman Chemical. Helping Eastman Chemical,
one of Jurong Island’s earlier investors, with
their wastewater treatment needs allowed them to
focus on their core business of producing oxo-chemicals.
Initially, a major challenge was faced when the
plant did not respond well to the actual wastewater.
The organic removal efficiency of the plant was
below expectations, and it was suspected that the
wastewater streams contained certain components
which caused the acclimatisation by the bacteria
to be slow and certain slow-growing aerobes to be
lacking. Water consumption increased sharply, greatly
increasing the operating cost
to Eastman Chemical, and there was also concern
from the Singapore authorities that a huge amount
of drinking water, a scarce resource, was being
inappropriately utilised.
A team of engineers from SembUtilities, working
closely with Eastman Chemical’s own engineers,
came up with an ingenious solution. Their solution
involved introducing streams of diluted, easily
biodegradable wastewater from SembUtilities’
other wastewater treatment plants to the Eastman
Chemical wastewater treatment plant as dilution
water. The readily biodegradable wastewater contributes
to only 5% of the overall organic content, and eliminates
the need for potable water consumption. Not only
was the consumption of potable water for dilution
drastically reduced, bringing Eastman’s operating
cost down by at least half a million dollars a year,
the overall organic removal efficiency was also
increased.
“Engaging SembUtilities was definitely the
right decision for us. Wastewater treatment under
their attention has resulted in significant savings
and we can now concentrate on our core operations”
Lakshmanam Ramasubramaniam, General Manager,
Operations, Eastman Chemical Singapore. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| back
to Utilities |
| |
01
Brian Pattison, SembUtilities UK technician (left) and
a satisfied customer Fraser Thomson, Uniqema Manufacturing
Manager. |
| |
02
SembUtilities’ sludge holding tank at Eastman Chemical,
Jurong Island. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
