Future fuel solutions in the pipeline for Brugg Rohrsysteme. erpecnews special feature, by Nick Needs

With so much recently having been written about polyethylene piping, it is important to remember that steel pipes still feature on the vast majority of petrol stations in the world today and whilst use of the ‘plastic solution’ is certainly on the increase, steel is not just going to go away. Far from it in fact, especially with the rapid development of new fuels, many of which will possibly possess as yet unknown components. Germany has recently allowed polyethylene to be used on its service stations after a ten year approvals process, but with this big step for the industry, comes an indication of just how cautious, even some of the most developed countries can be, when reacting to changes in the ways in which we handle fuel. Nobody would disagree that in the past, we have not done enough to make sure the environment is protected from the threat of harmful petroleum products.

The need to constantly focus on the integrity of materials, to match the quality requirement needed to operate with today’s fuels, is a major initiative for polyethylene pipe producers. It was interesting to learn that even working with steel, the challenges for manufacturers remain exactly the same, as was pointed out to me at a recent meeting with Thomas Ochmann, Sales Director of leading flexible steel pipe manufacturer, Brugg Rohrsysteme GmbH.

Thomas, having been with the company for 33 years, told me, “The future of fuels is at the centre point of everything we do, but surprisingly, not enough people seem to be overly concerned about this subject today. Strange, especially with so much focus at the moment on the damaging effects of ethanol. What’s interesting is that outside the retail petroleum industry, we work with the leading motor manufacturers in Germany, who look to our steel applications as being the standard requirement for fuels handling. They subsequently integrate their research findings on our products, into the manufacturing of their cars.”

I asked Thomas how steel pipe work has moved with the times, so to speak. He said “When we first worked with Exxon and Shell twenty years ago, the main challenge was for us to produce a steel solution for the forecourt area, having no connections. The normal application at that time was black steel pipes with joints everywhere, but both these MOCs wanted just one piece of endless pipe work. We were able to supply this using technology from our parent company which was prominent in the cable industry. Just to explain, there are four divisions of the Brugg Group. Piping, cable, rope and the de- velopment of process control systems”. He continued “The Group has been established for over 100 years, but the piping division actually started out in the 1970’s. We worked with copper pipe back then, something we only stopped using as an option 10 years ago after discovering that, in certain circumstances, copper did not react favourably with fuel. Today our flexible, endless, double walled, monitorable, steel piping system is the industry bench mark for high quality and we believe it is the ultimate solution for many future problems the petroleum industry is likely to face. At the centre of these are likely to be unknown and as yet undeveloped fuel compounds, but not so far round the corner is a blend of petroleum containing 15 percent ethanol. Considering the aggressive nature of the product, this will surely provide parts of the industry with a huge challenge”.

The modern factories of Brugg Pipe Systems Division are in Switzerland and Germany, manufacturing about 40 pipe systems and more than 20 000 articles. From here they manufacture flexible and rigid pipe systems and work with over 30 export partners in 25 countries, operating across Europe, the US, Canada, Mexico, the Carribbean, Kuwait, Russia, Korea, Japan and Australia.

A quick glance at the Brugg website shows the huge range of piping products they have, with some being able to operate at extreme temperatures as low as -250 °C, specifically for the transportation of super cooled liquefied gases. The LPG pipe Brugg manufacture, operates at levels of -50 °C. At the other end of the scale, Brugg also manufacture piping which will withstand intense heat temperatures in excess of 400 °C, designed for cooling pipes,hot water and steam pipes and safety pipe to transport temperature-controlled environmentally hazardous media. If you would like learn more about steel piping, come and meet Thomas at erpec 13. He will be very pleased to help.

For more information, please visit www.brugg.de

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