KOCHI:
Air Products (NYSE: APD) announced today the successful ISO 9001:2015 certification of its Kochi Industrial Gas Complex at the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) Kochi Refinery located in Kerala, India.
ISO9001 (International Standards Organization) is the most frequently recognised standard from Air Products’ customers and puts the quality seal of approval on management systems applied to all aspects of management and operations. This is the first time the Kochi facility has been certified and it now joins more than 200 Air Products’ industrial gas facilities around the world already ISO9001-approved.
Richard Boocock, senior vice president and special advisor to the chairman at Air Products said, “Achieving ISO certification provides external validation of our management systems, something that many of our customers are increasingly requesting. To do so in such short period of time is a huge achievement and testament to the diligence of the Kochi team in applying the highest standards to our systems and processes. We are also very proud of our Kochi team for the safety achievement which was awarded to us when India was celebrating its 48th National Safety Week. At Air Products, nothing is more important than safety – not production, not sales, not profits. Our philosophy and
culture are built on core safety values, and these are values that we strongly believe in and values that work.”
Air Products’ Kochi facility safety performance was recognized earlier when, less than two years since the start of operations, the industrial gas complex was awarded “best factory for outstanding performance in safety and health” for 2018 by the Government of Kerala, India. The award was given by the T.P. Ramakrishnan, Minister of Labor & Excise, Government of Kerala, India.
Previously in 2018, Air Products’ Kochi Industrial Gas Complex was recognized for excellence in Field Safety during its construction phase by earning the prestigious “Construction Industry Safety Excellence Award.” The award was presented by the Construction User’s Round Table (CURT) organization.
The Kochi Industrial Gas Complex generates hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and steam, and is an invaluable constituent of BPCL’s IREP to manufacture cleaner auto-fuels complying with Euro- IV/Euro-V specifications. The industrial gases manufactured also enabled BPCL to increase its facility refining capacity by nearly two-thirds, from 190,000 to 310,000 barrels per day.
BPCL and Air Products are looking forward to the commissioning of a second project at Kochi to build, own and operate a new syngas production facility. The syngas facility will be located alongside the current build-own-and-operate project and will supply BPCL’s new Propylene Derivates Petrochemical Project (PDPP). The unit will employ Air Products’ proprietary cryogenic gas separation technologies to produce syngas. The PDPP enables BPCL to enter the Indian petrochemical market and enhance the value obtained from its refining operations.
