Filtration Leader Supplies Fresh Gasification Advances to POSCO and Reliance

One of the world’s leading manufacturers of high performance filtration and separation technology has secured spares orders worth $5million for Asia’s largest gasification projects.

Porvair Filtration Group (UK) – honoured with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade earlier this year – began working with South Korea’s POSCO E&C in 2011, and India’s Reliance Industries Ltd in 2013, providing advanced char filtration systems to both.

Porvair has now supplied performance-enhancing operational spares which are expected to be employed by Reliance and POSCO on-site in the near future, further heightening efficiency through durability, extension of operating life, and lowered costs.

The filtration specialist is leading innovations in gasification and sees its work with POSCO and Reliance as a demonstration of what can be achieved in the production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) with products encompassing a range of high temperature filter elements and pulse jet blowdown systems.

POSCO E&C, a division of multinational steel manufacturer POSCO, is building a coal gasification plant to produce SNG for powering its Gwangyang facility. The plant will incorporate Porvair’s hot gas filtration system – an established technology used to remove fly ash during the gasification process.

In 2011, Porvair successfully completed delivery of its initial POSCO contract, valued at in excess of $10m – the first CB&I E-Gas project outside of the US – providing critical filtration of the syngas downstream of the gasifier and heat exchanger to remove the erosive and abrasive char that damages downstream equipment and processes.

Following on from that success, India's largest private sector enterprise, Reliance Industries Limited, selected Porvair to design and build char filtration systems for its new pet coke gasification plant at Jamnagar, as part of the J3 expansion project.

Reliance's Jamnagar site is the largest oil refining complex in the world, with an aggregate refining capacity of 1.3 million barrels of oil per day.

The gasification facility – also the largest of its kind built in the world – is set to process petroleum coke and coal into synthesis gas using E-Gas™ technology licensed from Lummus Technology, the technology group of CB&I.

Andy Bevis, Porvair’s Gasification Business Manager, said: “Our new spares orders with POSCO and Reliance represent a pleasing extension of two great relationships, hopefully leading to longer-term supply deals to support their major gasification installations.

"This sustained success significantly strengthens our position as a leader in the gasification market, further demonstrating our expertise in hot gas filtration and constant drive for growth in Asian export sales, in turn improving our reputation and sales channels in the region.

“Elements of the engineering are similar across both sites, and the invaluable experience gained from each has helped to inform further innovation, refining our knowledge for the collective benefit of both Reliance and POSCO.

“Porvair continues to strive for heightened efficiency matched by lowered costs for world class performance - and with POSCO and Reliance returning to us once more, we remain certain that we are progressing in the right direction.”

Porvair Filtration Group – which has supplied the aerospace, nuclear, energy, process and bioscience industries with performance-driven filtration equipment for over 30 years – manufactures in both the UK and USA and has an extensive network of sales offices and distribution channels throughout the world.