N E W S www.engineeringnews.co.nz 11 NEW CONTINUOUS CATALYST REGENERATION PLANT UNVEILED BY REFINING NZ Refining NZ unveiled the $365 million Te Mahi Hou project at a special ceremony attended by prime minister John Key at Marsden Point last month, and praised the strength of Northland and New Zealand manufacturing that had made its success possible. Four years in the making, the new plant will lift production, cut CO2 emissions and increase the security of supply to New Zealanders who currently rely heavily on the refinery for much of their energy needs, Sjoerd Post, chief executive officer of Refining NZ says. “We believe Te Mahi Hou is not only a major step for Refining NZ, but also for New Zealand and Northland. “Globally, projects on this scale typically import specialist contractors, but this has been completed successfully drawing on the substantial Northland and New Zealand expertise available to the refinery at home.” The new CCR (Continuous Catalyst Regeneration) plant will bring benefits for the business and the environment. “Te Mahi Hou is a ‘sweet spot’ for the refinery where we can be more profitable, while using less energy and reducing our CO2 footprint. We will continue to explore such beneficial growth opportunities for our refinery. “Te Mahi Hou was a major commitment that we entered into four years ago. We are delighted to see it brought to such a successful outcome. It will continue to contribute to the Northland and national economies, and we are grateful for the huge input of energy and skill we have had from the Northland engineering community in making it possible,” Mr Post says. The refinery employs 500 people and produces about 50 percent of the petrol New Zealand motorists use, 80 percent of the country’s diesel and 100 percent of its jet fuel and shipping oils. Manufacturing exports grew in 2015 Data released by Statistics New Zealand last month reflected the improvements felt by much of the manufacturing and exporting sector in 2015 compared to the previous year, with increases across a number of high-value manufactured export categories, say the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA). NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam says, “Annual values of mechanical machinery and equipment exports increased 5.7 percent on 2014, electrical machinery and equipment exports increased 15.7 percent, optical, medical, and measuring equipment exports improved by 18.5 percent, and plastic and plastic articles exports increased 2.3 percent on 2014. “Manufacturers and exporters have battled through some rough years following the GFC, with soft international markets and an overvalued currency hitting sales volumes, competitiveness and margins. The changes they had to make to their business to survive in that environment started to pay off in 2015, as conditions improved. This is contrasted by a drop in the primary sector, with export values of milk power, butter, and cheese down by 20.6 percent on 2014, for example. “New Zealand needs to get much better at creating an environment where we can grow export values across sectors on a sustainable basis. 2015 was a good year for manufacturing exports, but work remains to be done if we are to achieve this goal,” says Dieter. Marsden Point Oil Refinery development and testing of Enphase microinverters sold in Asia-Pacific and Europe,” says Greg Steele, vice president of engineering at Enphase. “By making a further investment in New Zealand, Enphase is now poised for future growth as we continue to build a worldclass engineering team that will work in tandem with the team in California to develop future generations of the Enphase Home Energy Solution.” Enphase established its presence in Christchurch in 2011, and its power electronics engineering team was originally involved in the design, development, and testing of microinverters bound for the Asia-Pacific and European markets. Working together with Enphase’s engineering headquarters in Petaluma, the Christchurch Engineering and Design Centre provided its expertise in the development of the fourth, fifth and now the sixth generation of Enphase microinverters. The Christchurch team’s charter will now include the development of future generations of the Enphase Home Energy Solution in line with the company’s product roadmap. “New Zealand is an important market for the Enphase Home Energy Solution. As a country with a significant proportion of renewable energy in its grid electricity, relatively low solar uptake and a tremendous desire for energy independence, we’ve observed a keen interest from New Zealanders in the upcoming launch of our home energy solution,” says Nathan Dunn, managing director for Enphase Energy Asia-Pacific. NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam
1-48 NZEN Apr16-LR
To see the actual publication please follow the link above