ENDEGS has a clear mission: they want to contribute to reducing the hazardous industrial emissions that get into the air and are dangerous to people and environment. Therefore, they offer various services for industrial degassing and emissions reduction.
ENDEGS is a family-owned company in Pförring, Germany, and has developed, patented and marketed leading technologies for safe, clean and sustainable emissions control. The company is an expert for the environmentally-friendly mobile emissions treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and hazardous air pollutants (HAP) in tanks, pipelines, vessels and barges as well as the reduction of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint.
They guarantee compliance with safety regulations to ensure the safety of people and property. As an experienced partner, ENDEGS accompanies clients through the entire degassing process and offer everything that is necessary to reduce emissions safely from one single source.
ENDEGS’ mobile service offers a possibility to mitigate harmful gas emissions. The technology provided by ENDEGS is applied in industrial surroundings where the existing infrastructure fails, is not (yet) properly installed or needs to be shut down for maintenance. They also operate where gas accumulations have occurred unplanned and further offer the temporarily replacement of vapor recovery units (VRU) and vapor processing systems (VPS).
Interview with Kai Sievers, CEO ENDEGS Group.
Easy Engineering: Which are the most futuristic products / solutions from your portfolio?
Kai Sievers: ENDEGS has developed leading technologies for safe, clean and sustainable emissions control over the past 15 years. In 2008, we have developed the world’s first fully equipped, autonomously operated, trailer-mounted vapour combustion unit – making mobile degassing and emissions treatment possible for the first time ever. At the time, that was a very innovative and futuristic development and technology! Tank degassing has become a standard nowadays. However, we constantly improve our services and technologies and extend our portfolio of services regularly. Therefore, we are able to offer our partners solutions for various difficult challenges – like the degassing of products like ammonia, butadiene or ethylene or complex projects like turnarounds.
E.E: What are the characteristics of these products / solutions?
K.S: Our mobile vapor combustion units (VCU) are capable of burning all kinds of gases, gas compounds and vapors of the hazard groups IIA, IIB and IIC with no open flame – that makes us the only company in Europe being able to do so. ENDEGS VUCs are scalable from 0.1 to 50 megawatts and are available with a combustion power of 3, 5, 10 and 20 MW. With our innovative and strong units, we accompany our clients though the entire degassing process and offer a combustion rate of more than 99,99 %. Our solutions are powerful, robust, fast and flexible. The degassing process has only low impact on client’s business as the daily work can continue almost uninterrupted or with only little disturbance.
E.E: Tell us about the company’s long-term goals / prospects?
K.S: Our goal is clear: We want to see to it that fewer hazardous emissions, gases and vapors pollute the environment and endanger both environment and people. In the long-term, our aim is to reduce those harmful emissions more effectively and extensively. We have already carried out more than 1.400 degassing projects – some of them lasting up to three years and including the degassing of hundreds of sea vessels or liquid gas tankers. ENDEGS operates in Europe and Northern Africa and has recently expanded to the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states as well.
But our services do not only include degassing. ENDEGS also offers a remote-controlled tank cleaning. By leveraging the ATEX Zone 0 robot, we ensure the safety of everyone involved in the process. We care for the wellbeing or environment and people equally. Therefore, we are certified after ISO 45001 and ISO 9001 to ensure the protection of everyone involved in our environmentally friendly emissions control services.
E.E: Tell us about product innovation and how does it impact the future?
K.S: Innovation is very important for us. In order to keep on reducing emissions and the global GHG footprint, constant innovation and new technologies are necessary. Emissions are caused in many areas of our daily life nowadays – reducing emissions and improving the air quality have become more and more important. Innovation leads to improved technologies that enable us to work with more complex products like hydrogen, styrene and LNG/CNG.
We have been awarded the TOP 100 Innovator seals in 2021 and 2022 and have thus been selected as one of the 100 most innovative companies in the German SME sector. 120 test criteria were used to measure topics such as innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes, open innovation, and innovation success.
E.E: How will product innovation help the customers?
K.S: When we develop new technologies that enable the degassing of more complex products, it helps our customers because there was no way to treat these emissions beforehand. For example, we have marketed our fleet of vaporizers with nitrogen tanks in 2022. With that, we can purge and render insert systems and system components that handle flaming liquids and gases. The technology can be applied to maintain pipelines, tanks, barges and bulk containers as well as during turnarounds. The mobile nitrogen vaporizer is ideally suited for the use in emergencies and during downtimes. With that new mobile evaporator with nitrogen tank, even complex gases can be safely burned to over 99.99 %.
Another new product we introduced this year is the 3 MW vapor combustion unit. The reduction of combustion power (before, we only had units with 5, 10 and 20 MW) makes the 3 MW units ideally suited for short-term projects and emergencies. Right after arrival, we can start our work. We realize as much combustion performance as possible in a minimum of space with the lowest possible fuel consumption.
E.E: How do employees shape your company’s future orientation?
K.S: Our employees are very important for us and our constant innovation! In their daily work with our customers, they see what can be done better – which processes need to be improved and what new technologies could be useful. We provide them the space in a good atmosphere they need to let innovation emerge from those ideas.
E.E: How does the digital transformation affect your products / business?
K.S: Digitalization enables a better planning of the different processes and working steps. We have many different projects going on in different parts of Germany and whole Europe. Digitally, that can be planned easier.
E.E: Tell us about research and development in your company.
K.S: As already mentioned, many innovative ideas emerge from the daily work “in the field”. When developing new services, technologies or products, we also pay close attention to the needs and demands of our customers. We use the experience from our previously realized projects and always adapt them to the current market conditions.
E.E: How do you overcome the new challenges and this more competitive environment?
K.S: We have mastered every challenge yet – thanks to our motivated team and the long and reliable relationships with our partners! Our mobile combustion units are very reliable in their operation, which is another important factor.
E.E: Tell us about the company’s future strategies and how will you adapt to the future.
K.S: In the future, we aim to continue working in a highly flexible way. We further want to strengthen our partnerships and want to work even more closely with our partners and customers. Long-term, we expect an increase in demand for environmentally friendly options for degassing and tank cleaning in the different industries.
