TÜV SÜD Chemie Service GmbH

Based on their long-standing experience and an unbeaten customer proximity, the company’s experts provide integrated services that focus on ensuring safe, reliable and profitable plants with an outstanding level of availability. The company was formed from merging the owner’s inspectorates of Bayer, Hoechst and Dow Olefinverbund. Today, TÜV SÜD Chemie Service GmbH is the specialist entity within TÜV SÜD for the chemical industry. The origins of TÜV SÜD AG as a third-party testing and certification organisation date back to 1866, when the owners of steam boilers in industrial centres decided to establish the first steam boiler inspection associations.

“Our customer value is the integrated approach of us covering the entire asset life cycle with dedicated experts working closely together. Customers increasingly demand a holistic approach meaning they are being serviced wherever they operate their facilities on the globe”, says Thomas Walkenhorst, CEO of TÜV SÜD Chemie Service GmbH and business unit Manager Chemical and Process Industry at TÜV SÜD. Hans Joachim Machetanz, COO of TÜV SÜD Chemie Service GmbH adds, “In-depth expertise, primarily, professional experience on the operator’s side, are considered especially critical in understanding and coping with new challenges and serving as a real partner for customers globally. For this reason, we employ staff with a strong professional background in the chemical and process industries. As production, project engineers and experts, most of them have gathered several years of experience in specialist positions at leading companies gained unparalleled know-how. International colleagues from global principal markets of chemical industry are trained in Germany to ensure a sustainable quality level.” Today, the experts of the global business unit Chemical and Process Industry (CPI) support customers worldwide from their sites in Europe, the USA, China, Singapore and India.

Picture: TÜV SÜD

TÜV SÜD Chemie Service is a valued solution provider throughout the life cycle of chemical and process plants – from planning, procurement, installation, placing into service, operation and maintenance to shut down and decommissioning. The company’s core competence covers tailored testing, certification and engineering services, by offering integrated support and full quality management for investment and expansion projects. From planning and procurement to placing into service/commissioning of a plant, the services include integrated sourcing strategies for equipment, materials testing and materials selection in addition to corrosion protection expertise and the management of pipe classes, particularly with respect to changing codes, regulations, ordinances and standards. Further services include support in selecting and auditing suppliers, in construction design and in defining specifications. The accredited testing organisation is also recognised as a Certified Body, a status which ultimately facilitates launching components and entire systems.

TÜV SÜD Chemie Service’s approach to support its customers along the life cycle of their assets from commissioning to decommissioning ensures cost-efficient compliance with legal requirements. Besides inspections, our experts provide hazard and risk assessment services and evaluate customers optimised risk-based turnaround strategies. Operators also benefit from software-based data management and end-to-end technical documentation. Reliable scheduling and execution of the inspection and test services including documentation are significant contributors to successful compliance management. In addition, TÜV SÜD Chemie Service offers consulting services based on the HAZOP procedure for the systematic risk review of all possible process aspects, to ensure, that the design incorporates adequate safe guards to allow a process to stabilise at operation conditions and for confident shut downs. In order to complement the existing product portfolio with an established laboratory and premium advisory services, TÜV SÜD Process Safety was also launched, allowing TÜV SÜD to determine data and reaction parameters for thermal process safety, explosion protection and safety assessments within the scope of the Seveso Directive in Europe. Driven by the ongoing automation of production assets and the digitalisation of plant management the company is currently working on an array of innovative inspection methods to further increase the already high safety level in customers’ facilities. The digitalisation initiative is strongly supported by its parent company TÜV SÜD AG.

TÜV SÜD Chemie Service GmbH and its experts are located close to their customers in major chemical and industrial sites across Germany complemented by TÜV SÜD’s global presence to serve customers worldwide. In order to increase cost efficiency large investment projects in the chemical and process industry sector typically include global sourcing strategies. In recent years, the construction of world-scale plants has increasingly moved to emerging markets. Dedicated quality assurance (based on regulatory and customer specific standards) in the design and manufacturing phase is of crucial importance to guarantee mechanical integrity of equipment. TÜV SÜD’s global business unit Chemical and Process Industry is dedicated to deliver these critical services around the globe. Comprising of 1,000 employees spread across more than 30 locations globally, the business unit serves as the single source for highly specialised services at consistently high standards throughout the world. Industry-sector-specific services help customers to keep control over their investments and operating costs. Further, the risk of service interruption and downtime in the operating phase can be mitigated significantly by ensuring the appropriate quality level during construction.

Services at a Glance:

Process Safety Management:

• Explosion protection and explosion protection documents (especially electrostatics)
• Thermal process safety concepts, process optimisation, pressure relief
• Assessment of criticality of powders, liquids and gases
• Selection of safety concepts and preventive actions
• Internal guidelines, expert reports, expert opinions, incident reports, audits, project management
• Risk assessments (ZHA, HAZOP, HAZAN, PAAG, FMEA, AMDEC, SIL…)
• REACH classification, labelling and packaging (CLP)
• Industrial health and safety, management systems, environmental protection
• Training courses, experiment presentations (electrostatics, explosions 1:1)

Plant & Equipment Integrity:

• Quality management for investment projects throughout the world in accordance with national and international standards (AD 2000, EN 13445/13480, PED, ASME, GB), national regulations and customer specifications
• Support for manufacturer selection/auditing
• Review of purchasing specifications
• Support in issues addressing constructional design and material or welding requirements
• Strength, structural and stability analyses
• Stress and special analyses (e.g. FEM)
• Monitoring of production and quality assurance
• Approvals, inspections and certifications as per PED 2014/68/EU or TPED 2010/35/EU

Plant Safety & Inspection:

• Expert reports: water legislation, German Air Pollution Control Act, German Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health
• Support with safety issues and solutions
• Assistance with hazard assessments
• Systematic safety assessments
• Periodic inspections in the operation phase of production facilities as per the German Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health and water legislation (machinery, cranes and lifting installations and containers subject to transport law)
• Inspection of safety/process instrumentation, control systems and explosion protection measures
• Failure analyses and assessments
• Verification of maintenance measures
• Assessment of specialist workshops and organisations as per WHG (Water Management Act)
• Data administration and monitoring of inspection tools via proprietary IT tools
• Training of operating personnel/competent persons
• Support in the implementation of Knowledge Based Inspection/RBI/TÜV-RoiM® schemes
• Functional Safety
• Machinery Safety

Materials Engineering & Testing:

• Mechanical and technological tests
• Metallographic examinations and microstructural analyses (stationary and mobile)
• Corrosion monitoring
• Failure analyses and expert reports (e.g. materials and corrosion protection)
• Ultra-modern material testing laboratory in Frankfurt-Kalbach (DIN EN ISO/IEC 17020 and 17025)
• Destructive material testing
• Support in material selection where corrosion resistance and durability are critical
• Support and expertise for sealing systems