Valve Magazine - Summer 2011

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Velan Acquires Majority of
Italian Valve Maker ABV Energy
Velan Inc. has acquired 70% ownership of ABV
Energy S.p.A., an Italian manufacturer of engi-
neered valves, actuators and control systems sup-
plied to energy markets. The Marianetti family
will retain 30% ownership and Luca Marianetti
will continue as president and CEO of the compa-
ny, which will now be Velan ABV S.p.A. Terms of
the transaction, which is being funded out of the
cash resources of Velan, were not disclosed.

Flowserve Purchases Assets and Operations of FEDD Wireless LLC Flowserve Corp. has purchased the assets of FEDD Wireless LLC, a small, privately owned wireless data acquisition company based in Houston. Flowserve will assume ongoing operational responsibilities of the company, including existing equipment, related intellectual property and business personnel. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NEW CONTRACTS
Emerson Selected for Europe’s Largest
Carbon Capture Demonstration

Doosan Power Systems has chosen Emerson Process Management to control a new carbon capture demonstration project at the SSE ( Scottish and Southern Energy) Ferrybridge coal-fired power station in northern England. Development of viable carbon capture technology is central to the UK’s climate change and energy security objectives, and this project will demonstrate the technology on a semi-commercial scale over a two-year period beginning in 2011.

Currently under construction, the demonstration project will be the largest in Europe, capturing 100 metric tons of carbon dioxide per day—the equivalent of what might be produced by five megawatts of coal-fired power-generating capacity.

Allagash Signs Contract with Latin
American Industrial Group
Allagash International, Inc.—and its divisions
Allagash Valve and Controls and Nor’East Con-
trols—has signed a $2.5 million contract with
Colombia’s Grupo ETHUSS, making Allagash
the exclusive distributor of valves and controls
for the syndicate’s 80-plus companies in Colom-
bia and Central & South America.

Grupo ETHUSS’ members represent engineering, power generation/transmission, oil exploration and refining, construction, manufacturing, infrastructure and other industrial sectors in 13 countries. Sales in 2010 exceeded $450 million.

Metso to Modernize Power Plant
Automation

Metso will modernize the automation systems at Xcel Energy’s Sherburne County Generating Plant in Becker, MN. This is the first phase of a multi-phased renewal project that will span six years. The work, done in stages, will coincide with major plant outages and not impair the plant’s long-term 95% availability factor.

Metso’s first delivery in Phase No. 1 will cover new automation system hardware and software, including workstations for operators and engineers, process management tools, an OSI-PI link, links to a third-party optimization software, a link to Xcel Energy’s generation dispatch center and links to PLCs throughout the plant.

KUDOS
GE Technology Helps MOL Danube
Plant Earn Plant of the Year Award

The MOL Plc Danube Refinery has been named HART’s Plant of the Year. MOL Group is the only refiner of petroleum products in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia. MOL’s Danube Refinery has conducted crude distillation since 2001 and is the only Hungarian MOL refinery to do so.

GE products, including Dresser Masoneilan digital valve positioners, HART level instruments and ValVueOVD software, have helped enhance MOL’s plant efficiency by monitoring the health degradation of control valves and level instruments before it impacts process control.

Grede Awarded “Best in Class” by
the American Foundry Society
Grede Holdings LLC has won the “Best in Class”
Award from the American Foundry Society
(AFS) for its new timing gear cover for the John
Deere 9 liter IT4 reduced-emissions engine. The
timing gear cover was selected because it
reduces cost by eliminating bolt-on components,
reduces weight through the elimination of unnec-
essary mass and provides a significant reduction
of draft compared to conventional casting
processes.