The island of Samsø reached an important milestone on its way to a greener future when its new ferry was bunkered with LNG for the very first time. Kosan Crisplant's high-speed LNG bunkering unit is now in operation.

On what could have been any cold and rainy Thursday in February, the first gas-driven domestic ferry in Denmark was bunkered in the port of Hou. The successful first bunkering with LNG represents an important milestone in a ground-breaking project that has led to the development of a zero-emission high-speed LNG bunkering unit. The bunkering unit, delivered by Kosan Crisplant as a turn-key solution, has been designed to meet the customer's need for a quick and environmentally friendly bunkering procedure.

Fossil-free future

For the small island community of Samsø, the first bunkering with LNG marked another important step towards entirely eliminating the use of fossil fuels by 2030. The ferry, which recently arrived from the shipyard in Poland, will be running on LNG when it is put into service in March 2015, but in a not so distant future it is meant to run on natural gas made from the island's own biomass. When that time comes, the bunkering unit will be moved from the Jutland side to the port of Sælvig on the Samsø side.

LNG bunkering unit, port of Hou, Denmark

As per November 28 2014, UK-based Combined Gas Systems is part of the Kosan Crisplant Group.

The acquisition of Combined Gas Systems is a further expansion of KC ProSupply, Kosan Crisplant's trading division that supplies gas-related components and equipment as well as consultancy services to the gas industry worldwide.

The acquisition of Combined Gas Systems was sparked by a wish for KC ProSupply to be able to offer a more complete range of products and services to its customers in the UK. Besides its trading activities, Combined Gas Systems brings a highly experienced service organisation and a fleet of service cars into the Kosan Crisplant Group and thereby adds a new dimension to the KC ProSupply product portfolio. 

More info: Press release on the acquisition (pdf)
More info: KC ProSupply homepage

Kosan Crisplant celebrated the delivery of Universal Filling Machine (UFM) No. 4000 in Indonesia by further increasing its commitment to the Indonesian society.

Seven years into the Indonesian government's Kerosene to LPG Conversion Program, UFM number 4000 was sold in Indonesia this summer. In the middle of October 2014, the milestone was celebrated with a combined press conference and customer event hosted by KC Indonesia at the Borobudur Hotel in the capital of Jakarta. 100 customers from nearby LPG filling plants were invited along with representatives from the national gas company Pertamina and the association of oil and gas entrepreneurs (HISWANA MIGAS).

Playing an active role

"We are very pleased to contribute to making a safer and healthier energy source for cooking available to the Indonesian people to by providing the filling machines that constitute an important part of the LPG infrastructure" says Lars Sall, Kosan Crisplant's Business Unit Manager in Far East/Asia Pacific. He adds: "We have been locally present since 2007 and remain continuously dedicated to playing an active role in the Indonesian society."

School sponsorship

Since the beginning, the dedication has manifested itself in the work to increase filling plant and consumer safety by ensuring outstanding filling accuracy and constant support of our customers so that their equipment is always safe to use. At the event in Jakarta a new layer was added, when the Kosan Crisplant Group committed to sponsoring the Harapan Bunda School, a local elementary school situated in a low-income area.

UFM no. 4000

The highlight of the event was the presentation of a special-edition gold UFM to the customer who ordered UFM number 4000, Mr. Gunadi Yeo from PT. Medamech- Medan, North Sumatra. The event also comprised presentations on KC's after sales service, a new tank monitoring system and a display of key spare parts.

Safer and healthier cooking 

With an aim to improve the health and safety of the population by promoting the use of cleaner-burning LP gas for cooking, the Kerosene to LPG Conversion Program was initiated by the Indonesian government in 2007. To keep up with the demand and make the process of establishing a filling plant easier, KC Indonesia imports and stocks UFMs so that the many new filling plants that have sprung up following the conversion program have quick and easy access to the equipment they need.

• Indonesia has approximately 250 million inhabitants 
• A family empties one 3 kg cylinder per week on average
• The capacity of a standard filling plant with 12 UFMs is approximately 30 tons/day (one shift)

The filling carrousel is spinning and the flow of freshly filled cylinders on the way to your customers is constant. By all accounts, your filling system is running perfectly, so you might not pay that much attention to it.

You should, though. Slowly, but steadily minor flaws invisible to the untrained eye are eating away your profit.

Minor flaw, huge impact

High-capacity filling is all about the output. Carrousel-based filling systems are optimized for maximum performance with all moving parts operating in perfect synch in order to obtain the most efficient production flow. This means that just the slightest delay in an operation can affect the overall plant capacity. And when you fill thousands of cylinders every day, even minor flaws have a huge impact.

Here are some of the problems that our service engineers often observe:

Problem #1: Slow filling head decoupling
Minor flaws in e.g. the filling head decoupling mechanism can cause an already filled cylinder to take an extra round on the carrousel.

The result: An entire round of idle time for the filling machine in question and an overall reduced production capacity.

Problem #2: No signal for decoupled filling head
If the photocell that detects if the filling head has been properly decoupled after filling is dirty or defect, an already filled cylinder might take an extra round on the carrousel.

The result: The same as for problem 1.

Problem #3: Valve malfunction
A valve that closes with just a slight delay immediately impacts the filling accuracy and typically leads to overfilling.

The result: Several tons of gas out the window every year.

Problem #4: Carrousel speed too high
Paradoxically, the filling capacity might decline if the carrousel is spinning too fast. If the carrousel speed does not match the time it takes to fill a cylinder, some of the cylinders may not be full when they have completed a round.

The result: The cylinders in question take an extra turn on the carrousel, most of which will be idle time.

Problem #5: Leak test bottleneck
A leak detector can't begin the test until the gas sensor is clean. If the concentration of gas in the air is too high, the machine will keep trying to clean the sensor head over and over again while the filled cylinders pile up.

The result: bottleneck in the filling line.

Problem #6: Insufficient cleaning and maintenance
A filling system that does not get the care it needs will suffer more from the daily wear and tear and consequently not last for as long as it could have done.

The result: Negative impact on financial results and a need for further investments in equipment.

What to do about it
As you can see, there are plenty of those small profit-eating bugs ready to invade your filling system. The good news is that it doesn't have to be like this.

Carefully cleaning and maintaining your equipment on a daily basis will take you a long way. That's why we always deliver thorough cleaning and maintenance instructions along with our equipment. Take the time to perform the recommended procedures and start seeing the results on your bottom line.

We also offer to take on the task of keeping your filling plant in perfect condition through customized service agreements.

KC Lanka has gone from start-up to primary production facility of the KC Group in just ten years.

13.5 km of chain conveyor, 7,500 filling machines and 8,500 filling heads. That's just a small part of what KC Lanka has produced since the beginning in 2004. Add to that the numerous components and assemblies for virtually any system in the KC product range and it's evident that KC Lanka's days of being a small-scale start-up are long gone. The anniversary was celebrated at KC Lankas premises in June 2014.

ISO 9001 and IECEx certifications

What began as a modest business venture quickly became the primary production facility in the KC Group. Today, KC Lanka holds both ISO 9001 and IECEx certifications and ships more than 100 containers every year; a huge accomplishment achieved thanks to KC Lanka's vigorous commitment to quality and constant improvement.

Further expansion in 2016

The production facility has been growing with such a speed that it will be relocating to new and more spacious premises during 2016 to be able to meet future demands.

More info: KC worldwide sourcing

Kosan Crisplant enters new territory with the supply of a bunkering facility for an LNG-powered ferry owned by the Danish island municipality of Samsø. The zero-emission LNG bunkering facility makes it possible to refuel a ferry for a whole day's operation in less than 30 minutes.

Relying entirely on ferries for transport to and from the island, it was paramount for the municipality of Samsø that the bunkering of new LNG ferry would require only a short pit stop so that they would not have to alter the ferry's timetable. The simplicity of Kosan Crisplant's solution makes it possible for the ferry crew to complete the bunkering procedure in just half an hour or less.

The LNG bunkering facility represents a step into a new business area for Kosan Crisplant. Project Director Anders Bjørn, who is in charge of the project, says: "We have drawn on our experience from more than sixty years the LPG filling industry to create an LNG bunkering solution that simplifies the procedure and emits no greenhouse gases. That makes it unique in the area of cryogenic gases."

Kosan Crisplant will deliver the entire bunkering facility as a turnkey solution. The contract with the municipality of Samsø was signed on 9 July 2014.

The island of Samsø is renowned for its focus on sustainability and the new LNG-powered ferry, which can also run on biogas, is part of the island's vision to eliminate the use of fossil fuels by 2030. The ferry will be put into operation in October 2014 and will run on LNG from the beginning of 2015. 

Data sheet: Fully automatic and flexible LNG bunkering facility (pdf)
Brochure: Small-scale LNG solutions (pdf)