A swift cooling response from Aggreko has proved key to keeping production running at a Dutch gas manufacturer after a fire destroyed integral on-site cooling systems.
The fire, which was caused by an electrical disconnection, destroyed the facility’s cooling towers, leaving site stakeholders without the vital systems required to maintain safe and efficient operations. With the incident occurring during summer heatwaves pushing temperatures to almost 40°C, the rapid restoration of cooling capacity was crucial to ensuring production continuity and avoiding financial disruption from extended downtime.
To best mitigate this impact, the gas manufacturer required emergency response expertise to assess the situation and provide a temporary cooling system bespoke to site needs. Crucially, any potential solution needed to be fitted in a designated safety zone and integrate gas detection systems.
The plant manager reached out to energy and temperature control solutions provider Aggreko to deploy a solution that could meet these site-specific requirements within constrained time periods. Working closely with plant technical staff, Aggreko’s engineering team designed and mobilised a system with four high-capacity cooling towers and eight pumps linked by customised, 12-inch hose configurations to meet site footprint constraints, using a transformer for high-voltage power supply.
“Speed and expertise were absolutely essential to resolving this incident,” said a spokesperson for the gas manufacturer. “We are very thankful to Aggreko for their swift response and professionalism in a highly challenging set of circumstances. The company’s ability to assess what was required and rapidly deploy a bespoke cooling system to mitigate disruption meant we could maintain operations and output. The trust we have built with Aggreko through a strong and reliable partnership meant that when these fundamentals were threatened, we were highly confident the situation could be quickly resolved – and so it proved.”
The urgency to restore site cooling capacity was underlined by the short timescales of the project. Aggreko was contacted on a Monday about the incident at the site, mobilising and arriving on-site within a week to assess the damage and propose a solution. Safety was also a key priority throughout, and despite remedial works taking place during a heatwave, the project was completed on time and allowed site personnel to maintain operations during peak summer demand.
“This project was a clear demonstration of our team’s ability to deliver under pressure and in challenging conditions,” says Koen Babonnick, PCR Specialist at Aggreko. “Being able to deploy at speed and scale is vital to effective emergency response in these situations.
“This extends to quickly taking account of site-specific requirements, including the customised hose configurations and safety considerations that were vital to this particular project. Reinstating essential industrial cooling processes helped the site avoid significant production downtime and prevented significant financial losses, and we are proud to have played our part in this.”
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