On July 6th, 2022, the Engineering Department of PKU Pioneer received a Letter of Commendation from a copper smelting customer who fully affirmed the outstanding performance of PKU Pioneer’s technical team in the construction of the VPSA oxygen system project in the letter. Our technical team is highly praised for emphasizing efficiency and surmounting obstacles to ensure the smooth delivery of the oxygen equipment and providing the user with full guarantee to increase production and expand capacity.

Letter of Commendation

Dear PKU Pioneer,

After your company contracted our VPSA oxygen unit project (1000Nm3/h, 90%), due to the reasons affecting the arrival of equipment components, putting the oxygen plant into operation was further delayed. The on-site installation and construction team overcame difficulties and worked overtime to complete the installation and commissioning of the oxygen equipment, earning precious time for us to put the oxygen system into production. Now the VPSA oxygen plant has been put into trial operation, running stably and achieving design capacity. We hereby present our great commendation and appreciation for your hard work and dedication.

Sincerely yours,

Engineering Department

July 6th, 2022

In consideration of the oxygen shortage as a result of its expansion of production capacity, the client decided to build a VPSA oxygen plant with a capacity of 1000Nm3/h and purity of 90% for oxygen-enriched copper smelting after comprehensive assessments. Adopting PKU Pioneer’s VPSA oxygen generation technology, the original oxygen generation equipment in the factory has been running stably for many years, with operating parameters remaining stable and excellent performance. Therefore, the customer still considered using the VPSA oxygen generation process for the new oxygen plant. After bidding, PKU Pioneer once again won the bid for the VPSA oxygen generator phase II project.

Because the two sides had established a friendly and trustful cooperation foundation in the early stage, coupled with the small capacity of the phase II oxygen production project, the project was expected to be very smooth as the construction wouldn’t be difficult and the construction period would be shorter for PKU Pioneer. Nevertheless, and the transportation and arrival of oxygen equipment components were postponed than originally planned when the whole country was unfavorably affected. At the beginning of June, when the oxygen equipment parts arrived, PKU Pioneer’s construction team immediately stepped in to start the pipeline prefabrication. The customer's original plan was to put the oxygen unit into production on June 30th, but as the project progressed, PKU Pioneer received the request to put it into production on June 25th in advance. The construction team immediately updated the work plan and arrangement and worked overtime to organize the installation work.

Because the phase I and phase II oxygen units need to be connected with the piping and electrical system, the electrical cabinet components needed to be shut down before they could be measured. However, at the customer's request, the outage maintenance time was adjusted again to be postponed by 10 days from the original plan, so was the jointing work accordingly. Due to the intensified construction period requirement and the cross work at the project site, the installation difficulty was further increased. Whatever difficulties encountered, PKU Pioneer team worked hard to actively and efficiently deal with the construction problems. Finally, the electrical connection was completed on June 27th.

A few days later, PKU Pioneer’s technical team was notified that the electrical bulge test was completed. On the evening of July 1st, the VPSA oxygen generator started up and achieved successful collaborated oxygen production. After it was successfully connected to the phase I oxygen equipment and completed debugging, the target oxygen generation was achieved. Facing changing external conditions and increasing implementation difficulties at the project site, PKU Pioneer team once again successfully completed the mission by virtue of our rich construction experience, efficient project management and professional technical services, and submitted a satisfactory reply to the client.

PKU Pioneer has provided nearly 100 sets of VPSA oxygen plants for oxygen-enriched non-ferrous metal smelting, which are used in oxygen-enriched bottom-blown, top-blown, side-blown and other smelting furnaces, among which copper smelting is the most common, helping enterprises to improve smelting efficiency and reduce production costs. In recent years, practical production has proved that applying VPSA oxygen generation technology to the non-ferrous metal area is becoming more and more universal for remarkable benefits. VPSA oxygen generator technology has now become the preferred oxygen generation process for the non-ferrous industry with continuous innovations and iterations.