Nobian Salt increases safety and improves efficiency maintenance stop with VISICS

VISICS on Site

Chemie Park Delfzijl – Chemie Park Delfzijl is located in Farmsum, Groningen. It is home to high-quality companies that, thanks to the natural raw materials available and good logistics, have jointly developed into an advanced and sustainable business chain. One such company is Nobian Salt.

Nobian Salt

Besides a cogeneration plant (Nobian Delesto) and chlorine plant (Nobian MEB), Chemie Park Delfzijl is home to three brine treatment plants and four Nobian salt plants. Here, the salt extracted elsewhere in the province of Groningen – which is continuously supplied with water (brine) via underground pipes – is cleaned and processed into raw materials for industrial purposes, such as the production of chlorine and lye, but also road salt, for example.

Periodic maintenance stops

Within Nobian, a team of three Turnaround Managers is responsible for managing the periodic maintenance turnarounds. For Nobian Salt, this translates to an annual turnaround of around 3 – 4 weeks per year, during which the maintenance of one treatment plant (tanks) and factory is always planned. Rachid Loukili, Nobian security expert, was already familiar with the principle of Digital Confined Space Monitoring. And knew that there were significant safety gains to be made from camera surveillance alone.

“Safety is paramount for us”, says Loukili, “When monitoring the safety of maintenance workers in confined spaces, we were previously completely dependent on agreements made on communication and compliance. By now equipping confined spaces with cameras, there is actual visibility of what is happening inside”.

VISICS Digital Confined Space Monitoring

Through training institute NIVI, Loukili was introduced to VISICS’ digital solution. After attending a presentation, Loukili visited a number of companies in the area to experience the impact of VISICS in practice. Loukili: “The theory is one thing. But it is only in practice that you really see what it does. After seeing VISICS in action at other companies, we sat down with Access Technology Group, the company behind VISICS, and Detasafe, our partner for safety personnel, to see how VISICS could concretely contribute to the safety of our next maintenance stop.” Jilles van Weenen, Turnaround Manager Nobian, adds: “Safety comes first. Always. But the fact that VISICS also provides more efficiency and therefore cost savings is certainly not insignificant. In addition, in the context of digitalisation, the deployment of VISICS fits in perfectly with our ‘Industrie 4.0’ project.”

Pilot VISICS at Nobian Salt

In March 2024, the annual maintenance shutdown took place within Nobian Salt, with VISICS playing an important role in it for the first time. An operator room was set up in the outdoor area with screen set-ups. Each screen setup allowed camera images from 12 locations in both the plant and treatment plant to be monitored, with findings communicated in various ways. Less-critical incidents such as PPE not being worn or not being worn correctly were logged, reported via the VISICS reporting tool and discussed daily. In emergencies, the VISICS monitoring operator could have raised the alarm and communicated directly with the maintenance worker in the room concerned, the VISICS operator in the field and the designated contact person within Nobian. Access per area was also granted, withdrawn and monitored centrally from here, fully tailored to the specific needs of and always in close consultation with Nobian.

Fewer waiting hours and more insight

The maintenance shutdown, prepared to perfection by the Nobian Turnaround Team, went off without any serious incidents. The presence of VISICS, in this case complementing traditional manhole guards, is also looked back on positively. Van Weenen: “The presence of cameras was not welcomed by everyone at first. To familiarise contractors with it, we included the VISICS system in the start/work instruction and held a presentation during the Task Risk Analysis (TRA). Raymond Schrijvers, VISICS Supervisor, was also already present at this.” Loukili adds: “Basically, everything remains the same: cameras themselves cannot act, but they give us significantly more image and insight. This is in the interest of contractor safety. And although fortunately there were no calamities during this stop, VISICS’ reporting tool gave us significantly more information on safety compliance, to which we could then draw our own conclusions or not.”

VISICS has also proven itself in terms of efficiency. Van Weenen: “If we need to check or inspect something in a confined space, this is normally only possible with a manhole guard nearby. However, because with VISICS a room is monitored 24/7, we never have to wait there and can know what is going on inside at any time. That has saved us a lot of waiting hours and therefore costs this stop.”