Dutch tank storage company Vopak has teamed up with I-IoT company TWTG to the efficiency and safety of its storage terminals worldwide, the first pilot of TWTG Valve Sensors are installed in the Port of Rotterdam. Vopak has a total of 68 terminals, and more than 250,000 valves in different variations. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain existing processes and procedures, hence all solutions are designed to be retrofittable and ATEX-certified.
Over a three year period (2017-2019), Vopak is investing EUR 100M in technology, IT and innovation, with the aim to drive the company’s competitiveness in serving the industry safely.
In the first instance, TWTG will work on fitting dedicated I-IoT sensors on existing valves of large pipes. This will bring a greater certainty on the status of the infrastructure (i.e. spillage prevention) and therefore increase the safety for Vopak’s workforce. Initiatives like this one will drive the digital transformation of the industry, bringing existing technologies such as sensoring, mobile communication, and large system integration together to create a safer, sustainable, and more productive working environment. TWTG and Vopak are researching together for opportunities in the near future.
The main development challenge was to create battery-powered solutions with an expected lifetime of 3 years, with very competitive pricing. TWTG Valve Sensors are ATEX zone 1 and IECEx certified, and are engineered to the extensive reliability demands in daily operations for industrial use cases.
