Sasol and Hatch announce 10-year agreement

TORONTO, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ - Sasol Technology (Pty) Ltd of South Africa has appointed Hatch, an employee-owned global engineering company, as one of its two preferred Licensor's Engineering Contractors for the Sasol®, Fixed Bed Dry Bottom (FBDB^TM) Gasification Technology for an initial term of 10 years. 

Hatch's mandate covers the upstream aspects of  the FBDB^TM Gasification Technology (coal delivery, gasification proprietary equipment and ash handling).

Linde Engineering has been appointed for the downstream aspects of the technology (raw gas cooling, raw gas shift,  by-product processing and overall integration of the gas island).

Hatch's expertise in materials-handling, machine design and pressure-vessel design will be used to assist Sasol with its ambitious plans to improve the Sasol® FBDB^TM Gasification Technology in support of growing and improving its syngas generation and coal-to-liquids business over the next decade.

Hatch will assist Sasol's existing coal-based gas production operations with continuous improvement and optimization, and will be responsible for the design of proprietary equipment and specialized systems for coal-gasification units for new gasification plants currently under consideration by Sasol, and will also assist Sasol with the further development of its gasification technology.

Sasol is the world's foremost producer of transport fuels from coal and other chemicals, using the Sasol® FBDB^TM Gasification Technology together with its in-house-developed Fischer-Tropsch synthesis technology.

Sasol is a public corporation, headquartered in Johannesburg, listed on both the JSE and the NYSE. Sasol's principal centres of operation are in Sasolburg, and Secunda, South Africa.

In 2003 Sasol commissioned the world's first commercial gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar employing its newly developed cobalt-based Fischer-Tropsch synthesis technology. A second gas-to-liquids plant using the same technology is under construction in Nigeria.

Hatch is one of the world's leading developers of process technologies, engineering design, global procurement and construction management serving the mining and metallurgy, energy and infrastructure sectors.

Hatch has 8,000 employees and 65 offices on six continents.  In South Africa, Hatch's team includes more than 1,000 engineering, procurement, project management and construction management professionals whose expertise has been recognized for the past two years as the Number One Consulting Engineering Company in the Mining and Infrastructure sectors. 

Hatch Africa Pty Ltd and Hatch Africa Energy Pty Ltd, the energy sector arm of Hatch Africa, are both Broad Based Black Economic Empowered (BBBEE) contributors, to the accreditation of Level 4 and Level 1 respectively.

SOURCE Hatch