The industry needs dependable partners, and new challenges demand innovative solutions. That is exactly what ENDEGS delivers. For over 10 years, the company has accompanied customers large and small through the entire degassing process. ENDEGS knows customers’ individual requirements, processes and the necessary approval procedures. This saves time and money, and makes your combustion processes highly efficient.
Interview with Kai Sievers, CEO of Endegs Group.
Easy Engineering: Why do users choose your products / solutions?
Kai Sievers: Our customers value the emissions reduction services by ENDEGS because we are a reliable expert in treating a various range of emissions. Since founding ENDEGS in 2007, we have a clear mission: we want to contribute to the reduction of hazardous emissions that get into the air and are dangerous to both environment and people. ENDEGS has therefore developed, patented and marketed leading technologies for a safe, clean and sustainable emissions control. As an experienced specialist for mobile emissions treatment of volatile compounds (VOC) and reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint, ENDEGS accompanies clients through the entire emission control process. We are a family-owned company with several long-lasting and trustful customer relationships.
E.E: Give us some examples of projects in which your products / solutions were used?
K.S: The application of our services is very broad. We offer the degassing of tanks, pipelines, containers, sea tank vessels and barges. Our portfolio includes also services for a remote-controlled and safe cleaning of industrial tanks for rent. Our mobile vapor combustion units (VCUs) can also be used to replace the vapor recovery units (VRU) of refineries during turnarounds, maintenance and repair.
A major project – in fact, probably our biggest one yet – we carried out recently was a TA-Luft conform degassing during a refinery turnaround in the western part of Germany. We degassed around 80 equipment’s simultaneously, consisting of a broad range of columns, heat exchangers, mobile liquid storage tanks and more. In total, we applied 1,9 km of mobile piping and also supplied mobile cooling towers and heat exchangers during the steaming process. That was a huge project – lasting several weeks – with the biggest amount of our material being used until now.
E.E: What products / solutions were used in these projects?
K.S: In this particular project, we used three of our mobile VCUs: two with a combustion power of 10 MW and one with 5 MW. In general, we operate vapor combustion units with different combustion powers: 3, 5, 10 and 20 MW. This allows the units to be operated in different scenarios: for example, due to the reduced combustion power, the 3 MW unit is ideally suited for short-term projects and emergencies. Right after arrival, we can start our work. Our VCUs are able to burn all VOCs and many HAPs (hazardous air pollutants) – even difficult products like ammonia, butadiene, ethylene or benzol. We completed over 1.400 degassing projects in the last 15 years. In this time, we have degassed all types of tanks, containers, wagons, tankers, pipelines and columns on SEVESO sites so that they can be reused, loaded or unloaded. Our VCUs can also be used as a temporary replacement for VRU, VPS or flares.
E.E: What special characteristics do your products / solutions have compared to others?
K.S: We are the only company operating in Europe that is able to burn all kinds of gases, gas compounds and vapors of the hazard groups IIA, IIB and IIC – from hydrocarbons to solvents to hydrogen-containing vapors to nitrogen – with a combustion rate of 100 percent and no open flame. In fact, we also made mobile emissions treatment possible for the very first time worldwide. We patented our mobile vapor combustion unit in 2008 – also meaning developing the world’s first fully equipped, autonomously operated, trailer-mounted vapor combustion unit! Of course, we constantly improve our technologies. We have been named as one of the 100 most innovative German medium-sized companies in 2021 and 2022. We also cooperate with the Port of Duisburg in Germany and have created the first legal option for the environmental-friendly degassing.
Kai Sievers, CEO Endegs Group.
E.E: How did your products/solutions improve productivity/efficiency for the users?
K.S: Our technologies and services are aimed at reducing hazardous gases and vapors that are dangerous to people and environment. During the operation of our units, downtimes of the facility are reduced to a necessary minimum and daily operations can continue undisturbed or with only minimal interference. This saves customers time and money as the business can keep going almost as usual during the entire process. When our VCUs are used to replace a stationary vapor recovery unit, this becomes very important: VRUs and vapor treatment systems are used to treat and remove vapors and pollutants in refineries and tank farms. They have to be inspected regularly to ensure their functionality – a process meaning downtime for the VRU. As facilities without a VRU are not allowed to operate, our mobile combustion units can be used to treat vapors in its stead during malfunction or maintenance. This way, there are no interruptions of operations and business for our customers.
E.E: What was the feedback from users?
K.S: Our customers are very satisfied by our efficient services mitigating harmful gas emissions that are hazardous to both people and environment. Among the things that our clients value are the smooth process that is often ahead of the schedule and the fact that operations can continue without long downtimes. Furthermore, customers appreciate that our combustion units operate without open flame and no perceptible heat and the services offered by our on-site personnel.
E.E: How do users work better with your products / solutions?
K.S: We help our customers to prepare for downtimes and maintenance and prevent disruptions in their operations. Some of our projects last up to three years and involve the degassing of hundreds of liquid gas tankers or sea vessels. Whether it is a complete service or individual equipment rental – we provide a customized solution for every challenge, from the consultation to project preparations and the degassing process itself. Our trained personnel operate the technology so that customers only need to assist us with the project preparation.
E.E: Which are the most successful products / solutions in your lineup?
K.S: Besides our mobile VCUs, we offer two more environmentally-friendly emissions reduction services. To increase occupational safety, we also offer the ATEX Zone 0 robot for rent. The robot enables a remote-controlled cleaning of industrial tanks. Thus, the health of workers is no longer risked as they no longer are exposed to the dangers of the ATEX Zone 0. The third of our most successful services are the ENDEGS Nitrogen services. Our fleet of vaporizers with nitrogen tanks allows the purging and rendering insert of systems and system components that handle flaming liquids and gases. It is ideally suited for working with more complex products like hydrogen or LNG/CNG. It is of course also possible to combine these services.
We constantly improve our services and technologies and extend our portfolio regularly so that we are able to offer our partners solutions for different and new challenges like the degassing of vapors stored under pressure like CNG or the degassing of liquified products under high pressure like LNG, propylene, butane, propane or ammonia.
E.E: How important is sustainability in your field?
K.S: Very important! Of course, our goal is to reduce emissions and contribute to reducing emissions and the GHG footprint globally. All the industrial gases that are still being vented into the air harm both people and environment. During our degassing process, we work especially environmental-friendly and comply with all requirements and regulations. But not only the environment is important to us – we also want to increase the health and safety of all workers involved.
E.E: What are your forecasts for the rest of 2022?
K.S: We expect a further increase in demand for environmentally-friendly options for degassing and tank cleaning in the different industries. Our vapor combustion units, N2 vaporizers and our rental ATEX Zone 0 robots are already well booked until the end of the year on national and international projects. Those in charge know that action must be taken to reduce VOC & HAP emissions. Acting now will have immediate benefits to the environment and safety. With the biggest, diversified and powerful fleet of degassing units in Europe, we expect a very positive development of the degassing market.
Furthermore, since we never stand still, we aim to further improve our technologies and services and find new applications where treatment of emissions was not formerly used, and where gases and vapors are released into the atmosphere.
