APEX Case Studies

ISSUE – Major hurricane struck US Gulf Coast causing many refineries to shutdown. Refining customer contacted Air Products when their contract supplier could not supply nitrogen for a critical refinery re-start.

SOLUTION – Air Products' Express Services recognized the critical nature of this refinery's demand, applied our "can-do" mindset, and depended on our reliable supply service in extenuating circumstances. APEX demonstrated our supply chain's flexibility by not only supporting our existing customers but also supporting other companies in need. A critical major refiner was able to re-start before other refineries in the area. 

ISSUE – Emergency situation at a Houston ship channel prompted the customer to contact Air Products right away.

SOLUTION – One of APEX's key attributes is fast response. With our 1-800 APEX GAS one-call customer hotline, the Air Products team mobilized personnel and equipment faster than the customer could allow entry into the plant. We arrived in advance of the customer's ability to flow nitrogen and gave the customer peace of mind. As our operators say, "We'd rather be waiting on customers than have them waiting on us." 

ISSUE – North American refinery had a badly damaged catalytic reformer that caused production to cease.

SOLUTION – Air Products' proprietary hydrogen pumping system came to the rescue. With our unique supply capabilities, we were able to quickly meet the customer's pressure and flow requirements, enabling the refinery to quickly resume production. Our dedicated supply chain resources enabled the customer to continuously operate in excess of 90 days while the fire-damaged catalytic reformer was rebuilt. The customer's business interruption insurance covered our temporary hydrogen services that kept the refinery running. 

ISSUE – Chemicals manufacturer wanted to take advantage of the favorable market conditions but their on-site hydrogen reformer had a tube failure. The customer wanted to have the repairs completed internally first and chose Air Products' temporary hydrogen supply as an alternative solution.

SOLUTION – Air Products dispatched an engineer to evaluate and prepare the site in case the customer decided to proceed with the hydrogen supply. When the customer's internal repairs were unsuccessful, Air Products preliminary work allowed us to come on-site quickly and provide temporary hydrogen so chemicals production could continue. Air Products temporary hydrogen helped this customer bridge the gap between having new SMR parts fabricated, delivered, and installed and wanting to take advantage of the booming market for their product. 

ISSUE – West Coast refinery was planning a major turnaround that involved over five units and wanted the turnaround to be as economical as possible.

SOLUTION – Air Products has over 30 years of experience helping refineries complete turnarounds. One of our differentiators is applications expertise. We partnered with this refinery's turnaround management team six months ahead of the turnaround and leveraged our extensive experience supporting similar applications. Refinery turnarounds must be carefully choreographed to minimize downtime while achieving cost effective results. Air Products input, using reactor cool down modeling for example, resulted in significant cost and time savings for the customer. Air Products appreciates that turnarounds are a critical activity and flawless execution is key.

ISSUE – Prominent East Coast Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal needed an enormous quantity of nitrogen delivered in a very short amount of time to cool down piping and equipment in advance of an LNG delivery.

SOLUTION – Air Products has the project management skills and expertise to handle large, complicated jobs. Air Products worked very closely with the customer to ensure a smooth operation that involved coordinating over 30 employees, pumping a whopping 54 million scf of nitrogen that was offloaded from 84 liquid trucks in 42 hours (five loads of product per hour during peak demand periods), responding to multiple scope changes as the job evolved, and most importantly, accomplishing all of this under difficult conditions without a single safety issue. When the need arises, this customer depends on Air Products for their temporary nitrogen needs.

ISSUE – Major integrated oil company needed over 200 miles of pipeline sequentially decommissioned for Department of Transportation testing and repair.

VALUE ADDED SOLUTION – APEX appreciates the need for timeliness and uninterrupted gas supply for the proper completion of large pipeline pigging requirements. The challenge of this job was to coordinate product and personnel along the four large sections of pipeline that had to be pigged sequentially. Air Products relied on our execution expertise and coordinated 130 trucks of LIN delivery, four pumper trucks, and personnel. The customer appreciated how seamlessly Air Products executed this job and how highly reliable we were as we sequentially injected nitrogen at multiple points along the pipeline.

ISSUE – A US Gulf Coast petrochemical plant was doing an extensive plant turnaround.

SOLUTION – APEX appreciates that despite the best efforts of the turnaround planning team, the unexpected often happens. With our highly experienced team, we set up a small command center on the customer's site to coordinate dispatching nitrogen to various units which took nitrogen coordination off the customer's plate. A highly valued vendor needs to show significant flexibility in responding to the dynamic needs associated with large turnarounds; Air Products did just that, gave the customer peace of mind, and successfully delivered over 200 million standard cubic feet of nitrogen.