Technology

Worthington Industries, Inc. announced that its Pressure Cylinders segment has signed an agreement to acquire a 75% stake in ARITAS, one of Europe's leading LNG and cryogenic technology companies offering a broad portfolio of LNG products, cryogenic vessels, systems and services. Located in Istanbul, Turkey, ARITAS employs nearly 300 people and generated sales of approximately $40 million for its fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2013. The transaction is awaiting Turkish government approval, which is expected to be completed later this month. ARITAS' LNG products account for a majority of sales. For nearly a decade, ARITAS has been building and servicing the virtual LNG pipeline in Turkey via LNG transport trailers, LNG ISO containers, LNG bulk tanks and LNG satellite stations for re-gasification. ARITAS is also an emerging global leader in LNG fueling systems, including those for natural gas powered marine vessels. ARITAS' product portfolio includes an array of industrial gas products including engineered tanks holding up to 500,000 liters, transport trailers, bulk tanks and microbulk storage, which will be complemented by Worthington's home grown liquid cylinder offering. "We are very excited to add ARITAS' LNG and cryogenics capabilities and reputation for quality.  We believe they will dramatically increase our ability to...

Videotel Marine International has released an Application Programming Interface (API) service in order for its clients to be able to manage their crew training records housed within webFTA - Videotel's powerful cloud-based training records management program - directly from their own Crew Management System (CMS) portal. Videotel's API service has two main processes, namely, pulling crew data from the Videotel cloud so it can be displayed in the CMS portal and, secondly, pushing crew data from the CMS portal to the Videotel cloud which, in turn, triggers crew data to be sent to the vessels automatically. This enhancement means that those in the office can manage the day-to-day operation from one console and still benefit from using webFTA without the need for double entry or updating of crew records, this all being handled automatically. When away from the office, through webFTA, management can still log-in and access the training records from any computer having an internet connection. Clearly, the crew onboard benefit immensely as they do not need to manually add records themselves nor request them, these being received automatically. This drastically reduces duplication of records and the man-hours lost resolving issues that such a process can often entail. This...

The Boskalis vessel the SMIT Elbe in the port of Rotterdam has become the first tugboat in the Netherlands to be fuelled with Shell GTL. GTL, which stands for gas-to-liquids, is a liquid fuel made from natural gas converted into synthetic diesel. GTL produces far fewer nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, fine dust particles and black smoke emissions than regular diesel. The SMIT Elbe will run on GTL for around six months to determine whether the fuel is able to effect a sizeable reduction in emissions without the engines being adapted. On-board emission measurements will be carried out at regular intervals. The pilot may also be interesting in relation to the emission reduction targets for the port of Rotterdam. The pilot is consistent with Boskalis' energy and carbon reduction activities in the Netherlands. Soure & Image Credit: Boskalis