Cryogenmash at the conference “Industrial gases and gas cylinders-2025” in Moscow
20.05.2025
On May 15, about 100 representatives of the largest metallurgical, chemical enterprises, and companies participating in the technical gases market have discussed the topical issues of the country's technical gases market.
"The industrial gases market in the Russian Federation decreased slightly in 2024, but it feels better than metallurgy, a key market for cryogenic air separation plants (ASPs). There is a huge potential for the transition from production for our own needs to outsourcing, as well as the implementation of technical re-equipping and service development programs," said Alexander Mazin, Cryogenmash Strategic Development Director, during the CREON Group conference.
The key theses of the speech:
- Oxygen, nitrogen, argon remain the basic products of the industrial gases market, while the rare gases market is the "preserve of flexible companies".
- Cryogenmash is a national leader in the development and production of cryogenic air separation plants. The largest cryogenic ASPs in the post-Soviet space are the two KdAd-120/45 manufactured by Cryogenmash. This is a unique experience for the company - such ASPs are equipped with large-size adsorbers of the front-end purification unit, valves up to 1600 mm in diameter and columns with a diameter of 6000 mm. Turbo expander compressor sets on magnetic suspensions provide with refrigeration capacity of 3 MW. Each plant produces 120,000 cubic meters of oxygen per hour. Only four companies in the world can produce such plants.
Another feature of the ASP KdAd-120/45 is the use of a unique piping of sixteen main plate-fin heat exchangers, which ensures the equal distribution of incoming and outgoing flows. The implementation of such solution allowed us to gain experience that is required for the development of spiral wound heat exchangers for large-scale LNG plants.
- Cryogenmash is implementing a project to manufacture the ASP KdAdAr-40/25 for the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Works, a unique plant that will produce with 13 different products and operate in three modes.
- Cryogenmash's knowledge-intensive projects include the research and development project "Transport tank containers", which involves the manufacture of a prototype tanker-container for transportation and temporary storage of liquid helium; the project will allow the transportation of tanker-containers by water and road.
- Since 2021, Cryogenmash is the head of TC 114 "Oxygen and Cryogenic Equipment": the company has reviewed, provided feedback and proposals on more than 210 projects of national and interstate standards, developed 7 standards and 5 more are under development. At the moment, JSC "Cryogenmash" specialists have developed the first edition of Amendment No. 1 to GOST R 71774-2024 "Rules for design air separation products using cryogenic/low-temperature rectification methods". The project of amendments to the national standard take into account the unique features of the requirements for the projects of technical re-equipping and reconstruction of ASPs, which have been in operation for more than 20 years. The first edition of the Amendment project has been published on the state portal of FGIS Beresta and is undergoing public discussions until 30.06.2025. Rosstandart plans to approve the Amendment No. 1 to GOST R 71774-2024 by the end of 2025.
- There is an increasing demand in the market for replacing devices with old ASPs to increase the performance. The "orphaned" ASPs manufactured in the EU and the USA require the professional maintenance and repairs, while the selection of analogues is the most difficult task for the operation services. The difficulty is also the shortage of professional staff for operational services, as a result, the revolutionary changes are taking place at the cryogenic equipment services market. Cryogenmash develops the service direction in accordance with the market trends – projects have been implemented to replace American PFHE with products from a friendly country with the recovery of the performance of a large oxygen ASP, the startup of foreign expander equipment left without the manufacturer's support has been ensured; besides the projects concerning the modernization of large cryogenic pipelines and repair of the column equipment of foreign ASPs are being worked out.
"The industrial gases market in the Russian Federation decreased slightly in 2024, but it feels better than metallurgy, a key market for cryogenic air separation plants (ASPs). There is a huge potential for the transition from production for our own needs to outsourcing, as well as the implementation of technical re-equipping and service development programs," said Alexander Mazin, Cryogenmash Strategic Development Director, during the CREON Group conference.
The key theses of the speech:
- Oxygen, nitrogen, argon remain the basic products of the industrial gases market, while the rare gases market is the "preserve of flexible companies".
- Cryogenmash is a national leader in the development and production of cryogenic air separation plants. The largest cryogenic ASPs in the post-Soviet space are the two KdAd-120/45 manufactured by Cryogenmash. This is a unique experience for the company - such ASPs are equipped with large-size adsorbers of the front-end purification unit, valves up to 1600 mm in diameter and columns with a diameter of 6000 mm. Turbo expander compressor sets on magnetic suspensions provide with refrigeration capacity of 3 MW. Each plant produces 120,000 cubic meters of oxygen per hour. Only four companies in the world can produce such plants.
Another feature of the ASP KdAd-120/45 is the use of a unique piping of sixteen main plate-fin heat exchangers, which ensures the equal distribution of incoming and outgoing flows. The implementation of such solution allowed us to gain experience that is required for the development of spiral wound heat exchangers for large-scale LNG plants.
- Cryogenmash is implementing a project to manufacture the ASP KdAdAr-40/25 for the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Works, a unique plant that will produce with 13 different products and operate in three modes.
- Cryogenmash's knowledge-intensive projects include the research and development project "Transport tank containers", which involves the manufacture of a prototype tanker-container for transportation and temporary storage of liquid helium; the project will allow the transportation of tanker-containers by water and road.
- Since 2021, Cryogenmash is the head of TC 114 "Oxygen and Cryogenic Equipment": the company has reviewed, provided feedback and proposals on more than 210 projects of national and interstate standards, developed 7 standards and 5 more are under development. At the moment, JSC "Cryogenmash" specialists have developed the first edition of Amendment No. 1 to GOST R 71774-2024 "Rules for design air separation products using cryogenic/low-temperature rectification methods". The project of amendments to the national standard take into account the unique features of the requirements for the projects of technical re-equipping and reconstruction of ASPs, which have been in operation for more than 20 years. The first edition of the Amendment project has been published on the state portal of FGIS Beresta and is undergoing public discussions until 30.06.2025. Rosstandart plans to approve the Amendment No. 1 to GOST R 71774-2024 by the end of 2025.
- There is an increasing demand in the market for replacing devices with old ASPs to increase the performance. The "orphaned" ASPs manufactured in the EU and the USA require the professional maintenance and repairs, while the selection of analogues is the most difficult task for the operation services. The difficulty is also the shortage of professional staff for operational services, as a result, the revolutionary changes are taking place at the cryogenic equipment services market. Cryogenmash develops the service direction in accordance with the market trends – projects have been implemented to replace American PFHE with products from a friendly country with the recovery of the performance of a large oxygen ASP, the startup of foreign expander equipment left without the manufacturer's support has been ensured; besides the projects concerning the modernization of large cryogenic pipelines and repair of the column equipment of foreign ASPs are being worked out.
