Cutting Edge

Peter Karakuc: We all do our jobs for our paychecks, but if there isn’t more to our jobs than money, then a job is all it is. My main motivation comes from helping customers to run their businesses more efficiently, safely, and reliably. The appreciation I receive from customers through letters, phone calls, and in person, is something I value very highly.

PN: When you found the 15 unsealed evaporators, was it easy to persuade the company to make the changes to FIDC and Water Management?

PK: The conversions were carried out over the course of three or more annual shutdowns. If the first group had not been successful we would likely not have been able to do the rest, but the ROI was compelling and the company verified that we were presenting conservative ROI data. So although it took some persuading, I have encountered much more difficult customers!

PN: Have you had any feedback from the customer?

PK: They are very happy with the conversions we did in their evaporator area, and in fact we are gradually converting the rest of their mill from competitors’ seals to AES, so I think that speaks volumes about their level of confidence in AESSEAL plc and AESSEAL Canada.

PN: What are the main target industries?

PK: We are willing to help any customer with energy audits and surveys, but typically we focus on pulp and paper mills, chemical plants, ethanol plants, mining and refining, and any area within a plant where flush water impacts reheat or evaporation and concentration within the process.

PN: What type of problems or inefficiencies do you mainly discover?

PK: We see the following:

• Cold water entering processes through packing or single seals where maintaining a hot process fluid is required.
• Contamination of bearing frames with process fluids due to gland leakage. Packing requires frequent adjustments, repacks, and shaft sleeve replacements because of constant wear, and bearing frames need to be rebuilt or replaced when catastrophic failures occur.
• Cold or heated water diluting a process that is evaporating and concentrating the product.
• Cold or hot water diluting a process fluid, making the process fluid less effective.
• Valuable process fluid leaking to the floor from poorly-maintained packing or single seals.
• Process fluid leakage causing equipment damage.
• Process fluid leakage causing safety concerns including toxic gas releases.
• Wasted fresh cold water, or worse, heated water, leaking to sewer, which typically can be treated by waste water treatment plants.

PN: Do you have any advice for other engineers or for sales personnel?

PK: To all AES sales people, I would say listen to your customers more than your competitors. Sales people like to talk, but sales professionals know when to listen. Discover what customers’ costs are for labour including benefits, maintenance costs, fuel, raw materials, steam, electricity, lost production and downtime. Compare competitors’ price levels with those of AES. Get as much of this information as you can, and build your case with your customer at multiple levels, from top to bottom of the site. The more buy-in at all levels, the easier it will be to succeed. Tradesmen and their planners and supervisors can be amazing sources of information, but for capital budgets for large conversions you will need to take your business case to the senior management level. Finally, I would say that without a verifiable ROI, your chances are slim.