Axens, an international provider of process technologies, products and services for the energy and chemical industries, recently announced the opening of Axens Arabia, a new subsidiary in Saudi Arabia dedicated to furnace design, engineering studies, revamps, and maintenance services under the Heurtey Petrochem Solutions brand.
Aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI), this strategic expansion reinforces Axens’ long-standing commitment to supporting the Kingdom’s industrial development, while strengthening its collaboration with its long-standing partner Saudi Aramco to locally drive energy efficiency, process reliability, and advanced manufacturing capabilities.
To further explore the role and ambitions of this new entity in the kingdom, OGN energy magazine spoke with Zied Ghazouani, Axens Vice-President Business Development for the Middle East, and Herve Lavieu, Vice-President Global Furnaces Product Line at Heurtey Petrochem Solutions, an Axens brand.
How would you introduce Axens Arabia’s furnace service offering and the value it brings to clients across the lifecycle of their assets?
Axens Arabia is our local entity dedicated to all process heaters subjects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), both for new equipment and existing ones.
Our subsidiary benefits from the full expertise of Axens Group and its dedicated furnace product line, Heurtey Petrochem Solutions, which has over 70 years of continuous experience in this field.
For the greenfield projects, Axens Arabia will be able to propose the best available technologies tailored to project requirements and include some fabrication in KSA when valued by the client.
Our approach brings added value to the Kingdom and allows to reduce the transport duration from workshop to site for the benefit of the project.
For the brownfield projects, Axens Arabia will be able to bring any support from feasibility study, basic, detailed engineering and supply, to propose capacity enhancement, efficiency improvement or modernisation projects and revamping.
Our proximity to the Saudi refineries and petrochemicals sites will enable a deeper understanding of client’s needs, while it facilitates direct technical discussions, and ensures that our solutions are adapted to local requirements.
What role do Axens-Heurtey advanced furnace solutions play in helping customers reduce emissions and progress toward their environmental ambitions?
Axens Arabia can propose different solutions to help clients reduce their emissions and accompany them in their energy transition journey, both for new equipment and revamped projects through various stages, or with a combination of different solutions together, like our new offering of ultra-low emissions furnace.
The first stage to reduce emissions is naturally to improve the energy efficiency of the equipment.
This is achieved thanks to improved heat recovery, such as high efficiency air preheaters being able to operate below the acid dew point on their exchange surfaces and reducing further the flue gas temperature going to the stack. The fuel that is not fired will obviously not produce any emissions to the atmosphere.
Then the emissions themselves can be targeted, either firing hydrogen when targeting CO2 reduction, or installing DeNOx system of the Selective Catalytic Reduction type (SCR) thanks to the extensive experience of an affiliate of the Axens Group.
The SCR takes advantage of the optimised integration of this system together with the convection section of the process heater and the air preheating system, allowing the optimum operation window in term of flue gas temperature.
Where can Axens Arabia make the biggest difference in helping clients modernise existing furnaces and prepare their assets for the energy transition?
Axens can make the biggest difference for our clients in the areas of digitalisation and electrification.
With regard to digitalisation, Axens-Heurtey have developed a specific remote monitoring tool called heater monitoring solutions (HMS).
This solution uses our Connect’In® platform for data collection and reconciliation together with the FRNC5 furnace software simulator (owned by Axens Group) for comparison of the site data with the theoretical operation results, allowing our technical experts to advise clients on how to optimise their actual operations.
And regarding the electrification of the process heaters, we have developed an updated and scaled-up electrical tubular furnace technology by building on our proven designs from the 1990s to be able to meet the needs and requirements of today plants operations.
This technology allows us to supply new equipment but also to handle revamping projects, depending on the actual shape and arrangement of the existing heater.
This technology is fully available to meet the size and duty requirements of industrial furnaces, particularly for fully electric tubular heaters as well as hybrid configurations.
We have already delivered several electric tubular heaters to industrial plants worldwide, including major refining facilities, creating tangible value for our clients.