Extreme availability requirements
Supply contracts and customers that are in some cases medical or process-critical leave hardly any room. The windows are short and fixed – they are only extended in exceptional cases.
Industries · Process industry
Industrial Gases
We manage tightly timed shutdowns at air separation units, hydrogen and CO₂ plants – as well as the new H₂ and CO₂ projects being added.
- On site
- supply often without any buffer for the customer
- Window
- short, fixed and contractually committed
- Cryogenics
- cold box and compressors on the critical path
- Growth area
- H₂ and CO₂ plants are being added
Market
Backbone of industry – and a growth area
Industrial gases are the quiet backbone of the process industry: air separation units supply oxygen, nitrogen and argon, with hydrogen and CO₂ as growth areas of the transformation. The high power intensity of air separation makes energy efficiency the key lever, and new plants are being added around H₂ and CO₂.
For maintenance and projects this means: on-site plants often supply their customers with only a small buffer – availability is contractually committed and in some cases critical to supply. Shutdowns therefore have to be short, precise and timed exactly. At the same time, new-build and tie-in projects are increasingly bringing project scopes into the same sites.
Where the customer has no buffer, it is not the daily plan that decides but the hourly grid.
Challenges
What is different here
Cryogenics
Cold box, heat exchangers and compressors require specialist trades. Cooling down and restarting are activities in their own right, with their own duration and little float.
Safety with oxygen and hydrogen
Oxygen, hydrogen and cryogenic media place high demands on explosion protection and occupational safety – and shape access, permits and sequence.
Fixed inspection windows
Recurring inspections of pressure equipment and vessels set the pace of scope and schedule. Planning is built around them, not the other way round.
New build and tie-in
H₂ and CO₂ projects bring project scopes and tie-ins into running sites – project logic alongside shutdown logic.
Typical tasks
Your task – and what we offer for it
On the left: what operators in this industry come to us with. On the right: the service that covers it.
A shutdown is coming up
Leadership from the definition phase to closeout and lessons learned – as the operator’s extended arm.
The shutdown window is very short
Logic-linked, dynamic detailed schedules down to the hourly grid, critical path and progress measurement every shift.
During execution every hour counts
Coordination of trades in the plant: measure, assess, take corrective action – anew every shift.
The scope has to stay under control
Challenge workshops and a scope freeze that holds – especially where the window can hardly grow.
An H₂ or CO₂ project is being added
Schedule, cost and documents for new builds and tie-ins – at the right scope, across several projects too.
Is this schedule technically sound?
Measurable schedule quality – for your own plan as well as for those of your contractors and partners.
We are short of people for the peak
Schedulers, supervisors, site managers and QA/QC staff – vetted and for exactly the months you need them.
Related services
Shutdown or project?
In this industry we support you in both worlds. From here you can go on to the services that belong to it.
Turnarounds
From the TAR-Check through scope and scheduling to leading the entire shutdown.
Go to servicesCapital projects
From feasibility through estimating and project controls to site management and overall responsibility.
Go to servicesFrequently asked questions
Questions answered
How do you plan a shutdown without a supply buffer?
Backwards from the supply commitment. First we establish when the plant must be delivering again; that defines the window, and only within it is the scope set. Where that does not work out, the alternatives are back-up supply, pre-production or splitting the work into several shorter windows – the operator decides, we provide the basis for that decision.
Why is cryogenics so often on the critical path?
Because cooling down and restarting need fixed physical times that cannot be shortened by adding people, and because the specialist trades for the cold box and compressors are scarce. Both belong in the schedule as separate activities, not in a float.
Do you also support new-build H₂ and CO₂ projects?
Yes. We manage new-build and tie-in projects with our own methods – schedule, cost and documents from the idea to commissioning.
Can you also manage several sites in parallel?
Yes. Project Controls on demand is designed for exactly that: the same control across several projects and sites, at the scope each project needs at the time.
Do you work on the operator's side and independently?
Yes. We report to the operator, not to an executing trade – ep-cm is owner-managed and does not belong to any group with executing companies. With industrial gases this matters especially in cryogenics: cold box, heat exchangers and compressors require specialists who are few and far between. We coordinate them from your point of view – plant condition and availability set the pace.
Terms such as cold box are explained in our glossary – along with 58 other terms from the shutdown and project business.
Let’s talk about
your plant.
Get in touch – we will respond within one working day, with people who know this industry. The initial call is free of charge.
Book an initial callPrefer to talk directly? +49 (0)211 5667 7754