How can chemical industry projects cleverly make up for the lost time after the pandemic

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The COVID-19 pandemic struck with force during the Spring Festival, without any warning, catching the whole country off guard. In particular, the lockdown of Wuhan, which was followed by nationwide restrictions, coincided with the Spring Festival holiday; workers were on leave at home and were unable to return to their jobs on time, resulting in a nationwide shutdown of businesses and production facilities. For the construction of chemical industry projects, they are often characterized by large investment amounts, high opportunity costs, and tight deadlines; once construction begins, it implies the accumulation of substantial debts. And time is the market, it is business opportunity. Delays in project timelines often lead to cost overruns, reduced economic returns, and other losses in benefits; for projects of strategic significance or even those with political implications, the consequences can be even more severe. The larger the scale of a project, the more severe its impact. Chemical engineering projects require a large number of workers for construction, and the source of these workers is often highly dispersed. All these factors result in relatively longer periods of inactivity for such projects, with more direct impacts and greater losses. The more than one month of time that has been lost represents immeasurable losses of various kinds. Everyone is still hoping for the end of the pandemic so that work can resume as soon as possible. Work can now begin. Aside from trying to minimize further losses, how can we make up for the time lost and the huge amounts of money lost? At this time, sharing some advanced experiences and applying them in a flexible and effective manner can undoubtedly provide some insights to address everyone’s difficulties. Here, we will introduce some applications in the chemical industry where compressor rental services can be utilized in the middle and later stages to overcome various constraints, organize work efficiently, and make full use of time to meet project deadlines. In the middle and later stages of chemical plant construction, compressed air is required for purging and pressurizing systems or pipelines, drying them (especially after hydrotesting), conducting airtightness tests, as well as system commissioning. Chemical processing projects have high requirements; generally, oil-free and clean compressed air is needed. For some special anaerobic systems or pipelines, high-purity nitrogen is also required for nitrogen purging prior to commissioning testing. For such projects, the successful commissioning of air compression stations or air separation units is a crucial prerequisite. The construction of typical chemical plants relies heavily on the operation of these stations, and all the construction activities mentioned above start from this point, with plans to complete them within 1-2 months or even longer. The mutual constraints among various stages here often lead to delays in the project timeline, especially when there are problems with the construction of air separation units or air compressor stations – for example, delayed delivery of air compressor equipment, issues with power or cooling water supply, problems during equipment installation, and so on. As for tasks such as purging, pressurizing, and drying the systems or pipelines (especially after applying water pressure), as well as conducting airtightness tests and system commissioning, it can be assumed that if there were no such constraints and these tasks could be completed simultaneously with the construction of the air compressor station or air separation unit, then time could be saved in the construction process after those units come online. Is such a possibility existing? It clearly does exist; compressor leasing solutions can serve as a substitute for air separation/air compression stations to provide qualified gas supply, eliminating such constraints and allowing construction schedules to be arranged flexibly. When the conditions are right, compressed gas can be utilized through leasing to complete construction promptly. In this way, by making flexible use of compressor rental options to arrange construction more efficiently, a significant amount of waiting time can be saved. It also avoids the numerous problems associated with traditional construction plans, where large-scale gas usage takes place only after the air compression/oxygen separation stations start supplying gas. These problems include insufficient gas supply (especially during purging, when gas consumption is very high and often far exceeds normal production needs), delays in obtaining gas, difficulties in supplying gas to remote locations, wasted energy due to nitrogen displacement, and substantial waste resulting from the need to keep compressors running throughout both peak and off-peak periods of construction. Furthermore, for some commissioning tasks that require a low volume of gas, such as purging, pressure testing, airtightness checks, and nitrogen displacement in small systems located at remote parts of the system, renting compressors with an appropriate gas capacity is more advantageous in terms of feasibility and cost savings, making it more suitable for use and adoption. In short, especially after this pandemic, with all industries eager to make up for the lost time and recover their losses, the flexible use of compressor leasing in the construction of chemical projects holds great value as a model to be followed and promoted by many chemical construction firms, particularly chemical industry owners. Due to the greater emphasis on capital utilization and stricter requirements regarding project timelines, this type of application emerged in Europe and the United States**, and was introduced to China by some multinational companies. Over the past decade, thanks to the continuous promotion by well-known domestic compressor leasing companies such as Jingfuen Leasing, such applications have gradually been adopted and favored by an increasing number of industries in China, including those in petrochemicals, natural gas, energy, steel, electronics, automobiles, air separation, food, and pharmaceuticals. It is also hoped that such advanced application solutions can be further promoted and developed, thereby creating value for more domestic enterprises.