Degussa: New Logistics Concept for Enhanced Safety
01-Aug-2003
CyPlus GmbH, Hanau, wants to increase transportation safety for cyanides at the Wesseling site through a new logistics concept based on safe and efficient storage of the product. This is coupled with a transport and delivery concept that dispenses with disposable packaging and allows the customer to handle toxic cyanides safely and easily.
CyPlus is the world's largest producer of sodium cyanide, used in gold extraction in the chemical industry and in surface treatment of metals. The company produces cyanides in Wesseling and at other sites in Europe and North America, including the 50/50 joint venture Cyanco Company in Winnemucca, USA.
CyPlus has invested over half a million euros in a new warehouse for cyanide salts in Wesseling. The warehouse, which has been in operation since the middle of the year, satisfies the most recent requirements for this hazardous material in terms of storage, product and transportation safety. It supplements an existing toxic materials warehouse of CyPlus. Norbert Steier, plant manager in Wesseling, summarizes the advantages: "The new warehouse is so organized that both disposable and reusable packaging in a variety of product forms can be supplied to our customers as speedily as possible."
CyPlus now plans to construct facilities for filling of special bulk containers, "solid-to-liquid systems" (SLSTM), in which cyanide will be transported in the form of briquettes to the customer's doorstep. For customers who normally use cyanide in the form of an aqueous solution, the solid cyanide is dissolved right in the container. The aqueous cyanide solution remains in the closed system and is later pumped into a storage tank.
The advantage for the customer from the viewpoint of work safety is the simpler and safer handling of cyanide with the help of SLS, explains Frank Harenburg, Managing Director of CyPlus. In addition, the customer does not have to worry about having to clean used disposable packaging before getting rid of it because the bulk containers are returned to CyPlus. From 2004 onward Wesseling should be able to supply customers using the solid-to-liquid system.
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