Alfa Laval: A new age of energy and resource efficiency
During Hydrocarbon Processing’s International Refining and Petrochemical Conference (IRPC), we sat down with Christian Thomsen, Business Unit President, Welded Heat Exchangers, Alfa Laval, and Tobias Vernersson, Business Unit Manager, Petrochemicals, Alfa Laval, to discuss the conference and how Alfa Laval wants to establish a new standard on energy and resource efficiency in the hydrocarbon processing industries.
HP: Why is Alfa Laval attending IRPC Europe?
Vernersson: To learn more about the interesting dynamics in the refining and petrochemical industries, as well as networking with other colleagues in the industry.
HP: Can you tell us what Alfa Laval does and what your company can bring to the industry?
Thomsen: We provide better energy efficiency and resource efficiency in heat transfer. If you look within our welded heat exchangers’ business, we have eight product lines and are typically the leader in each one of those categories and a very clear market leader.
What we are trying to do is establish a new standard in hydrocarbon industries. We want to establish a new standard for how you achieve better performance around energy and resource efficiency.
HP: How does Alfa Laval differentiate itself from its competitors?
Thomsen: I think it is very much related to the combination of application and product understanding. What can this product do? We are working in a very conservative environment where there’s very high risk. So, there are a lot of things you could do, which have not yet been done. It takes skill and knowledge to try to predict what can be done and even more skill to actually show that you have done it. We (Alfa Laval) are showing we can do things others cannot do.
HP: What regions are growing the most for your business?
Thomsen: Asia and North America are the big growth drivers. But, there are pockets of additional regions that are witnessing substantial growth. There are many drivers happening in places like India and the Middle East, but our growth is linked to the places where you see a big capacity and economic growth in the world.
HP: If someone in the industry was unaware of Alfa Laval, what would you tell them?
Thomsen: I would say that we are the only truly global provider of welded heat exchangers solutions that provide better energy efficiency for their plant.
Hydrocarbon Processing’s IRPC Europe event was held in Milan, Italy. IRPC Americas will be held September 25–26, in Houston, Texas. For more information about Hydrocarbon Processing’s IRPC events, please visit www.hydrocarbonprocessing/events.
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