Flowserve And The Linde Group Form Joint Venture To Deploy Natural Gas Refueling Systems In Europe
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Flowserve Corp. (NYSE: FLS), a leading global provider of flow control products and services for the global infrastructure markets, today announced it has entered into a joint venture agreement with The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company, to commercialize and deploy iKompressorTM natural gas and biogas refueling systems.
Called Flowserve Compression Systems GmbH, the joint venture plans to deliver at least 70 iKompressor refueling systems by 2009 to Germany, Austria, and neighboring European Union (EU) countries. The iKompressor systems are designed to reduce energy costs by up to 20 percent at low-inlet pressures, substantially reduce maintenance costs, and deliver high system reliability. As a result, station owners should be able to profitably deliver compressed natural gas to customers.
"The joint venture between Flowserve and The Linde Group demonstrates our continued engineering and manufacturing leadership as well as our focus on technology growth opportunities," said Lewis Kling, Flowserve President and Chief Executive Officer. "In addition, delivering safe, cost-efficient and environmentally friendly natural gas refueling systems to EU countries signifies our commitment to environmental sustainability."
Flowserve believes that iKompressor's ionic compressor represents a significant leap in technology for multistage gas compression technology. The iKompressor's breakthrough design includes two ground-breaking concepts: the use of innovative and proprietary ionic liquid as a liquid piston instead of a conventional fixed metal piston, and efficient gas compression at near isothermal conditions.
"Combining Linde's pioneering technology with leading engineering, manufacturing and service from Flowserve should revolutionize how compressed gas is delivered to consumers driving natural-gas vehicles," said Tom Ferguson, President of Flowserve Pump Division. "The Flowserve service and support network is prepared to provide the world's most sophisticated compression technology, at the lowest total cost of ownership."
"The demand for alternative fuels continues to increase. In order to meet customer needs, the iKompressor is designed to deliver the critical element to deliver reliable, safe service at compressed natural gas and biogas refueling systems," said Dr Aldo Belloni, a member of the Executive Board of Linde AG and responsible for the European business and global engineering operations. "We are glad to team up with Flowserve in this promising joint venture and bring in our longtime technology expertise in the further development and environmentally friendly use of both fossil and alternative fuels. This joint venture is another example how Linde technology contributes to preserve our environment and to boost alternative fuels."
According to recent reports from the European Commission, the EU is targeting the use of renewable energy at 20 percent, by 2020, when compared to its total energy consumption. This includes a 10 percent biofuels target. In Germany, natural gas vehicles are expected to increase to two million units by the year 2020, according to the International Energy Association.
The joint venture will be headquartered adjacent to Flowserve (Austria) GmbH manufacturing facilities in Brunn am Gebirge, a suburb of Vienna, Austria. As part of the arrangement, Linde will supply the technology, ionic liquid, and ongoing applied research and development.
In addition to manufacturing the iKompressor refueling systems, Flowserve plans to service the iKompressors through its "Technology Advantage" program, designed to help reduce lifecycle costs, increase equipment life, and maximize reliability.
iKompressor's Revolutionary Design
Instead of using fixed-piston compression technology, the iKompressor replaces metal pistons with liquid. Use of liquid in place of solid pistons significantly reduces the number of moving parts and frictional losses contributing to energy efficiency and low wear and tear. Station owners, as a result, can experience at least a ten-fold increase in maintenance intervals – 10,000 hours between scheduled maintenance versus 1,000 hours for conventional designs.
Further, the gas compression is performed at constant temperature using a water-cooled jacket around the compression cylinders. Gas compression at constant temperature or isothermal is the most efficient thermodynamic compression cycle possible. Conventional reciprocating compressors operate on the efficient nearly isentropic compression cycle. This combined effect results is designed to use up to 20 percent less energy consumption at low-inlet pressure.
About Flowserve Corp.
Flowserve Corp. is one of the world's leading providers of fluid motion and control products and services. Operating in more than 55 countries, the company produces engineered and industrial pumps, seals and valves as well as a range of related flow management services. More information about Flowserve can be obtained by visiting the company's Web site at www.flowserve.com.
About The Linde Group
The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with more than 50,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2007 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.3 billion. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards sustainable earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services. Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment - in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development. For more information, see The Linde Group web site at www.linde.com.
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The forward-looking statements included in this news release are based on our current expectations, projections, estimates and assumptions. These statements are only predictions, not guarantees. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from what is forecast in such forward-looking statements, and include, without limitation, the following: a portion of our bookings may not lead to completed sales, and our ability to convert bookings into revenues at acceptable profit margins; risks associated with cost overruns on fixed-fee projects and in taking customer orders for large complex custom engineered products requiring sophisticated program management skills and technical expertise for completion; the substantial dependence of our sales on the success of the petroleum, chemical, power and water industries; the adverse impact of volatile raw materials prices on our products and operating margins; economic, political and other risks associated with our international operations, including military actions or trade embargoes that could affect customer markets, particularly Middle Eastern markets and global petroleum producers, and non-compliance with U.S. export/re-export control, foreign corrupt practice laws, economic sanctions and import laws and regulations; our furnishing of products and services to nuclear power plant facilities; potential adverse consequences resulting from litigation to which we are a party, such as litigation involving asbestos-containing material claims; a foreign government investigation regarding our participation in the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program; risks associated with certain of our foreign subsidiaries conducting business operations and sales in certain countries that have been identified by the U.S. State Department as state sponsors of terrorism; our relative geographical profitability and its impact on our utilization of deferred tax assets, including foreign tax credits, and tax liabilities that could result from audits of our tax returns by regulatory authorities in various tax jurisdictions; the potential adverse impact of an impairment in the carrying value of goodwill or other intangibles; our dependence upon third-party suppliers whose failure to perform timely could adversely affect our business operations; our dependence on our customers' ability to make required capital investment and maintenance expenditures; the highly competitive nature of the markets in which we operate; environmental compliance costs and liabilities; potential work stoppages and other labor matters; our inability to protect our intellectual property in the U.S., as well as in foreign countries; obligations under our defined benefit pension plans; and other factors described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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