Linde

Philippines, Inc.
Address: Apalit ASU Plant, Km 57 Mc Arthur Highway Sampaloc, Apalit Pampanga
Date Visited: February 1, 2016

I. INTRODUCTION

Vision
Capturing our Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) vision in a policy
that serves the interests of our customers, employees, partners and society at large.

Company Profile
Linde Philippines is a manufacturer and distributor
of industrial, medical, and specialty gases and provider of a
range of related services including the installation of on-site
plants, gas equipment, pipelines and associated engineering
services.
Consolidated Industrial Gases, Inc. Apalit air
separation plant was inaugurated in 1990. In 2010,
Consolodated Industrial Gases, Inc. and Southern Industrial
Figure 1. Linde Apalit
Gases, Inc. rebrand to Linde Philippines. Plant

II. MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Raw Material
The air we breathe is a mixture of various gases, each with its own unique
properties that are invaluable for so many industrial processes and medical therapies.
Known as atmospheric gases, the components of air include:

Argon
Carbon dioxide
 Helium
Nitrogen
Oxygen

Air also contains a number of rare gases such as xenon, krypton and neon.
Although the ratio of this life-sustaining mixture has varied over time, the components
have remained unchanged for many millions of years.

Finished Products
Liquid Products
Liquid Helium
Helium (He) is a colourless, odourless, non-toxic, non-corrosive and non-
combustible gas. It is mainly sourced from natural gas wells. Liquid is ideal as a
cryogenic agent for a number of cutting-edge medical and physics applications.

Liquid Nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is inert, colorless, odorless, noncorrosive, nonflammable,
and extremely cold. It is used for food freezing, plastic and rubber deflashing and
grinding, cooling, metal treating, biological sample preservation, pulverization,
other temperature-related applications.

Liquid Oxygen
Liquid oxygen is pale blue and extremely cold. Although nonflammable, it
is a strong oxidizer. It is widely used for industrial and medical purposes.

Crude Liquid Argon and Pure Liquid Argon

Argon is used in critical industrial processes such as the manufacturing of
high quality stainless steels and production of impurity-free silicon crystals for
semi-conductor manufacture.
Compressed Gas Products
Medical Oxygen
It is used in the management of a number of chronic and acute health
conditions.

Industrial Oxygen
It is used in in various industrial chemical applications. It is used to make
acids, and other compounds.

Compressed Air
When combined with a fuel gas, compressed air produces a flame with a
lower temperature than an oxyfuel flame. An air-fuel flame is suitable for brazing,
soldering and carbon coating lower-temperature alloys. Compared with an oxyfuel
flame, it gives welders greater control over the thickness of the carbon coat.
Compressed air is also used for pneumatic drills, plasma cutting and metallurgical
processes such as die casting and blast furnaces.

Other Products
Dry Ice
Depending on the temperature and pressure, carbon dioxide (CO2) exists
in three states as a gas, liquid or solid. Essentially, dry ice is solid carbon
dioxide. Because dry ice has no taste or smell, is non-poisonous and non-
flammable, it is an ideal and highly- effective cooling and freezing agent for food.
It is particularly convenient for in-transit cooling, where power supply can be an
issue.

Fuel Gases
Various gases such as acetylene, natural gas, propane, propylene and
hydrogen can be used as a fuel for cutting and welding, heat treatment, as power
and energy for transportation and combined with oxygen, for various industrial
processes.
 Gas Mixtures
Food gas mixtures are used to delay the deterioration of packaged food by
substituting the air in the package with a protective gas mixture. Different gas
mixtures are used to improve the characteristic of many beverages from wine to
beer and soft drinks. In manufacturing a wide range of gas mixtures are used for
welding and cutting as well as for laser processing.
Gas Mixtures are either mixed continuously on site from pure gases or
they can be supplied premixed products in a range of package sizes.

Packaged Chemicals
Linde offers a wide range of packaged gaseous chemicals in many of our
core geographies. These gaseous chemicals include ammonia, carbon
monoxide, ethylene, ethylene oxide, hydrogen chloride, sulfur dioxide and sulfur
hexafluoride and many more. Packaged gaseous chemicals are used in water
treatment, chemical manufacture, materials science, foam manufacture,
chemicals, aerosol propellants, fire suppressants, utilities and pharmaceutical
manufacture.

Synthetic Air
Synthetic air is used as a zero gas in the running and calibration of
environmental monitoring and test equipment. In fact, it is used as a balance gas
in many calibration mixtures. It is also used as an oxidiser for flame ionisation
detectors in laboratory research and development. Other applications include
medical gas mixtures and atomic absorption flame spectrometry.

Process Flowchart
The main atmospheric gases oxygen, nitrogen and argon and the rare gases are
generally captured by reducing the temperature of air until each component liquefies and
 can be separated. Carbon dioxide is usually recovered as a by-product of various
industrial processes, in chemicals and refining in particular.

AIR FILTRATION COMPRESSION

WATER SEPARATION REFRIGERATION

PRE-PURIFICATION

CARBON DIOXIDE REMOVAL FILTRATION DISTILLATION

PRODUCTS SEPARATION

Figure 2. Process Diagram of Lindes Air Separation Operation

III. QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURE

In the production processes of industries, the availability of all required raw

materials and supplies is essential this includes as well the availability of gas. Linde
Philippines secures the highest quality of products and maximizes the safety of all
processes where their product is used. Their operations do have degree of automation
needed to optimize their processes. Linde monitors the operations of their Air Separation
Unit (ASU) via the control room, wherein parameters such as pressures of their system
and flowrate of gas streams where being watched. Also, the plant is equipped with CCTV
cameras which makes it easy for them to watched the whole area and ensure that
everything is safe and okay.

IV. WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT

The water that condenses from the water separation unit is used as a water source
in the entire industry. The other components of the air that are not necessary for the
composition of their product are returned back to the atmosphere. Since these
 components are found in air (raw material), it is safe to bring back and does not pose
harm to the environment.

V. ROLES OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS

Currently, Apalit plant does not have a Chemical engineer. But they did have
interns from the previous years. A Chemical engineer can assist in the documentation
control and quality assurance process, assist in the operation of analyzers, assist in the
identification and analysis of products and procedures in cases of non-conformances, and
assist in the completion and processing of regulatory compliance.