Hello!

We hope you’re keeping safe and well!

In our latest edition, we look at what’s happening in the framework of COP26 and the growth in investments in sustainability as the energy transition picks up speed, not only in Europe, but also in Latin America.

The renewable energy sector has been one of the areas attracting the highest amount of investment over the last years in the region.*

This prompts questions such as: How soon will a form of efficient hydrogen transportation be available, this being one of the principal challenges facing industry? And when will large-scale lithium development become viable for the batteries of the future? These are just some of the big issues at the top of the energy agenda for industry, as the transformation process revolutionizing the region's energy matrix and opening up electromobility continues apace.

360° projects

We’re already seeing a number of innovative projects springing up in Europe, Latin America and North America for plants and pipelines using hydrogen, water desalination, lithium, and different forms of electricity generation. Intensive work is also under way to develop options for industrial facilities powered by biomass as raw material, solar and wind generation, matched by major research into carbon capture and use (CCU) projects for heavy industries and the power generation sector. And several new projects working to develop green and blue ammonia as well as aviation fuel from recycled tires.

With our engineering and business development teams, we are already working with several customers from the early stages of engineering (pre-feasibility, feasibility, conceptual engineering, FEED, support for subsidy and permit management, as well as forms of financing) on these and similar projects. Our role is that of a technology integrator with a practical vision and considerable experience of complex EPC projects all over the world.

Green energy in Argentina and Chile: some examples

In the province of Corrientes, northeast Argentina, we have been developing engineering studies with input from our team in Seville, Spain, for a biomass plant  to boost energy production. Further north, in the Argentine province of Salta, we have designed and built a lithium processing pilot plant for Tecpetrol.

In Chile, our experience in ammonia, hydrogen and methanol projects has been well received, and we are currently involved in various initiatives associated with hydrogen and green ammonia. There is a major engineering study under way to develop a hydrogen pipeline: at the moment we are in the early stages, analyzing the pros and cons of different pipeline routes to the Pacific coast from the renewable energy generation park, which combines photovoltaic with wind sources. We have also joined forces with a group of world-class technologists to develop a conceptual engineering proposal for a hydrogen generation plant using electrolysis to produce green ammonia.

Against all odds

During our work to build the El Bracho combined cycle thermoelectric power plant in Tucuman, Argentina, it seemed that everything that could go wrong, did! From the sinking of the cargo ship bearing key components for the project, to organizing their emergency transport in huge cargo planes and reorganizing deadlines, the problems were compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic that meant we had to reconfigure all our work plans.

However, thanks to the perseverance and skill of all our teams working together, with GE in charge of Project Management, Engineering and Supplies and Techint as the main subcontractor for civil and electromechanical works, we managed to reach the start-up phase for the plant. Together with our customer YPF Luz, we all celebrated this major milestone with relief and a real sense of achievement. Find out the details of this exciting story in this video .

Factory of factories in Mexico

The state-of-the-art Hot Rolling Mill built by Techint E&C at the Ternium Industrial Center in Pesqueria, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, has been fully operational since the middle of last year. Not an easy task by any means, the project took 9 million labor-hours and involved over 2,300 people at the peak of work. We are really proud to have designed and built one of the most modern and environmentally sustainable plants in the region, today using automation and other facilities to manufacture advanced steel products for the automotive and white goods industries.

A virtual assistant in the field

The coastal cliffs of northern Chile, known as the Gran Farellón Costero, are an extraordinary and complex topographical feature, a prominent escarpment stretching over more than 1,000 km along the edge of the Atacama Desert, whose steep slopes sometimes have gradients of as much as 37 degrees.

Our team on site at that location had the idea of developing a satellite positioning system (GNSS) to help guide excavators working in these conditions. The technology replaces conventional topographic work and positions the excavator in a 3D model, allowing the operator in the cab to see the excavator’s exact location on a screen as well as the earthworks tasks to be executed. This has been an extremely successful program in terms of operator safety and productive efficiency, and the decision was subsequently taken to incorporate the technology throughout the company for all of its earthmoving equipment around the world.

More news:

What’s happening with green hydrogen? 

Thanks for reading us!

Until our next mail!

*Sources: Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2021 (cepal.org)