Natural gas powering a revolution in SA industry
December 2017
News
The increasing availability of natural gas in South Africa represents a significant opportunity for industry to lower energy costs and improve profitability, while also moving towards cleaner emissions targets. This is being made possible through the development of a rapidly expanding gas distribution network by Virtual Gas Network (a division of CNG Holdings) now available to businesses anywhere within a 300 km radius of Johannesburg.
With limited historical access, natural gas in South Africa has been used primarily as feedstock for the production of synthetic fuels, but the discovery and development of extensive regional offshore methane-rich gas fields (especially in Mozambique) means it can now be expanded to meet a much greater industrial demand. This will radically change the country’s energy dynamic in the coming years as more and more companies seek to optimise their operational performance and reduce their reliance on coal-based power.
Boilers, furnaces, dehumidifiers, heaters and coolers, ovens, kilns and turbines can all be fired efficiently via natural gas. Apart from lowering energy costs, the cleaner combustion of natural gas also improves equipment and plant performance and reduces maintenance by minimising the build-up of carbon residues within components.
Virtual Gas Network, together with fellow CNG Holdings division NGV Gas, has already converted a number of canneries, manufacturing and assembly plants across a range of industries in South Africa, in addition to fleets of warehouse forklifts in various storage and logistical applications, to gas.
It does so through turnkey gas solutions that cover the supply and installation of all necessary conversion equipment, including a pressure regulating plant and all associated hoses, connectors, valves and civil work requirements, through to managing the delivery of a constant supply of natural gas as required.
This ‘virtual’ distribution network is an innovative road-based delivery system of compressed gas tube trailer modules each storing compressed gas for distribution to customers. CNG Holdings, through Virtual Gas Network, manages the continuous delivery and collection of gas tube trailers as required, ensuring a guaranteed energy supply on a pay-as-you-use basis.
For more information contact Stephen Rothman, CNG Holdings, 086 011 6917, stephen@cngholdings.co.za, www.cngholdings.co.za
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