Over the last 50 years, Propak Systems Ltd. has grown to become a leading engineering and fabrication services provider. Jim Hanson, Managing Director of Technical Sales, talks us through the company’s vast range of state-of-the-art facilities and turnkey solutions.
CANADA’S GO-TO ENERGY PROCESSOR
Canada’s current midstream oil and gas sector presents an equally challenging and dynamic environment, playing a crucial role in transporting and processing hydrocarbons for upstream production and downstream distribution processes.
Although the industry has faced numerous challenges including evolving regulatory frameworks, environmental considerations, and the need for technological innovation, these also present opportunities for market players to offer innovative solutions that enhance efficiency and sustainability in energy processing.
This is particularly the case for Propak Systems Ltd. (Propak), a Canadian-owned company specializing in the design, engineering, fabrication, and construction of energy processing facilities and equipment.
The company excels in offering products and services tailored to the needs of the energy processing sector, supporting projects from initial conception through detailed engineering and design to construction, commissioning, and start-up activities.
“Canada’s energy sector is known around the world for its efficiency, innovation, and high safety standards. At Propak, we’re proud to be part of that story, and we bring the innovation and quality that we’ve learned here at home to the products and services we deliver to customers globally,” opens Jim Hanson, Managing Director of Technical Sales.
The company’s expertise spans gas processing, gas compression, enhanced oil recovery – including extensive experience in delivering thermal oil central processing facilities and associated well pads – heat recovery, and steam generation and power systems, including systems designed to minimize carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Moreover, maintaining a high degree of quality is an imperative component of Propak’s activities across the full life cycle of a project.
“We are creating a culture of quality to instill value into all aspects of our operations.”
Propak currently employs 1,500 staff across major manufacturing facilities in Airdrie, Alberta and Cambridge, Ontario, alongside a range of service facilities further across Canada and the US.
THE PROPAK ADVANTAGE
Since its inception in 1976, Propak has built a reputation for outstanding client service, integrity, and reliability.
In the last half a century, the company has cultivated a signature ability to design and construct both large turnkey processing facilities and individual processing units on modular, shippable skid-mounted packages, distinguishing the company from its competitors.
“Our unique integration of engineering and fabrication capabilities combine to create maximum customer value through bespoke design solutions, reduced capital costs, reliable project execution, and industry-leading product performance,” Hanson prides.
In addition, Propak’s modular expertise, standardized designs, and integrated engineering, fabrication, and construction capacities grant it the ability to accelerate its schedules to completion on a fast-track basis.
Such unparalleled expertise unlocks an international operational network for the company, which supplies energy processing facilities to businesses in more than 40 countries, working in every continent except Antarctica.
Propak’s exceptional experience and focus on the modularization of facilities has also allowed it to minimize field labor requirements, thereby enabling customers to deploy modern, high-quality equipment to meet their processing needs in areas of the world where specialized labor is constrained.
“We are experts in designing equipment to be transportable from our facilities to anywhere a truck can go. We’ve even shipped facilities via barges to sites where no roads existed,” Hanson reveals.
Such success wouldn’t be realized without Propak’s extensive worldwide network of partners and suppliers that support its operations and are foundational to its success.
“We rely heavily on the relationships we have with our suppliers to ensure we can provide the high-quality, cost competitive, and timely delivery of products to customers. Our company is made stronger by leveraging the strengths of our suppliers and partners.”
A noteworthy example of this is Propak’s role as the authorized distributor for Ariel Corporation (Ariel) gas compressors, which allows the company to benefit from Ariel’s market-leading expertise while bringing its own strengths to the market.
UNPARALLELED PROJECT EXECUTION
Propak boasts a vast range of projects across the US, Canada, and internationally that establish its track record of engineering achievements and outstanding product performance.
The company has built hundreds of gas processing and compressor facilities around the world, including multiple Modularized Gas Compressor Stations in North Dakota.
One notable example, situated on the Bakken Formation, saw Propak supply eight modular compressor packages to pressurize and transport raw gas via a downstream pipeline.
The specifications of the modular compressors included 2,200 horsepower (hp), electric drive, four-stage reciprocating compressors, designed to efficiently compress gas. The station was supplied complete with all interconnecting piping, piperacks, and necessary auxiliary and utility systems.
The packages were purposefully designed for easy transportation within tight shipping constraints and simple on-site reassembly. Moreover, thanks to a standard packaged design, the gas compressors were developed in a staged approach, granting the company the ability to fit additional compressor units as the station’s capacity increased.
Propak expertly engineered and designed the compressor modules to the client’s requirements and provided reassembly, start-up, and commissioning support on-site. The compressor package design has subsequently been duplicated and installed at multiple different locations, emphasizing its repeatable modularity.
Elsewhere, the company boasts the provision of world-class cryogenic turbo-expander plants. An exemplary facility was constructed in Northeast British Columbia, where Propak provided detailed engineering and design, procurement, and fabrication services.
The facility was designed to process 200 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) of raw natural gas in order to meet pipeline specifications and efficiently extract and fractionate ethane, propane, and butane, alongside other natural gas liquids.
The plant involved the employment of Propak’s design strategy for facility modularization, which allowed for the trial fitting of modules prior to shipping. The modules were then staged and shipped in close coordination with field construction operations, thus providing efficient execution and improvements to the project schedule.
The project scope called for engineering, design, procurement, and fabrication services, as well as start-up support, which were all provided on a lump-sum basis.
Based on the successful completion of the project, the client returned to Propak for a second, pre-planned identical facility.
VAST OPERATIONAL EXPANSE
Propak’s journey is marked by the strategic expansion of its manufacturing facilities across Canada, first sparked by the company’s expansion to Airdrie in 1978, having outgrown its initial small-scale fabrication workshop.
This expansion facilitated the establishment of the company’s second building at a time when the city’s population was approximately 1,000 people.
“The Airdrie facility, which once housed the entire company, now operates as our primary pressure vessel manufacturing facility,” Hanson highlights.
Located at 505 East Lake Boulevard, the facility houses specialized equipment to produce pressure vessels including a plasma cutting table, large steel profiler capable of cutting and beveling steel up to six inches in thickness, and numerous submerged arc welding machines.
The pressure vessel shop also regularly fabricates vessels in excess of three inches thick and up to 500,000 pounds.
Typical pressure vessels produced by the facility include:
- Two and three-phase separators
- Knockout drums
- Distillation columns, including demethanizers, de-ethanizers, depropanizers, debutanizers, stabilizers, amine contractors, and regenerators
- Filter housings
- Molecular sieves
- Mercury removal units
- Water treatment vessels
- Well test separators
The facility’s heat exchanger shop, meanwhile, manufactures and assembles shell and tube heat exchangers built to meet Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association (TEMA) Class C and R standards and includes milling equipment used to fabricate heat exchanger tube sheets.
CUTTING-EDGE FACILITIES
Propak additionally has a number of locations in Airdrie, including the structural shop where the company fabricates structural steel skids, modular pipe racks, and miscellaneous steel structures.
Elsewhere, in the panel shop, Propak manufactures electrical and control panels. Here, the company can complete many types of explosion-proof and general-purpose custom panels that are certified to international standards.
These panel types include programmable logic controllers (PLCs), remote input/output (I/O), distributed control system (DCS), DCS marshalling, compressor, communication, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), lighting contactor, heat trace control, amongst others.
Most notable, however, is the 404 shop, Propak’s largest fabrication and assembly facility which is fully equipped to assemble large process and compression modules.
The facility includes numerous overhead cranes, semi-automatic welding machines, a profiler used to cut and bevel pipes, a large carbon steel pipe spooling shop, a stainless steel pipe fabrication shop, a hydrostatic testing facility, an enclosed sand blasting bay, and two paint shops.
“In addition to the painting capacity, we are also able to apply internal pipe coatings in this facility. Most impressive is its main shop, which has large work areas that enable the assembly of our process and compression modules,” Hanson adds.
Elsewhere, on Veterans Boulevard, Propak’s 925 facility houses the company’s Enhanced Oil Recovery, Energy Systems, and Power and Steam Systems engineering teams. Its attached shop is equipped for pressure vessel manufacturing, Once-Through Steam Generator (OTSG) fabrication and process module assembly.
The facility contains a fully-equipped engine cylinder head remanufacturing shop and spare parts warehouse which maintains approximately $10 million worth of inventory.
“It also contains our controls simulation room, which allows for full software acceptance testing activities to be completed prior to automation systems being deployed to the field.” he informs us.
DELIVERING SPECIALIST VALUE
In 2018, Propak acquired the assets of Innovative Steam Technologies (IST), including its intellectual property and facility in Cambridge, Ontario becoming a key division of the company.
Located at 549 Conestoga Road, the Propak IST facility includes office areas for engineering operations and a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing space for OTSGs used in heat recovery applications. The Cambridge facility also houses two tube-finning lines utilizing a proprietary brazing process.
“This process increases the quality of bonding between the fins and tubes, enabling higher performance than more traditional finning methods,” Hanson insights.
Propak IST adds significant value to the power generation and energy industries as a unique provider of Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs).
The division is therefore strategically positioned to provide improved energy efficient solutions to support the ongoing global energy transition.
“Propak’s IST division has the expertise to provide the most efficient heat recovery and utilization solutions for our clients’ power needs.”
Additionally, its patented SQ-90 rifled tube technology provides an industry-leading solution for steam generation and enhanced oil recovery applications, delivering the highest-quality steam for enhanced oil recovery applications.
“Propak IST is your solution for heat recovery and steam generation, done a better way,” Hanson excites.
The company also provides parts and maintenance services through Propak Energy Services, which equally addresses customers’ needs in an expert and highly efficient manner.
The division operates product support, service, and parts facilities throughout Western Canada and the US with locations in Airdrie, Grande Prairie, Medicine Hat, Lloydminster, and Red Deer (Alberta); Fort St John (British Columbia); and Kindersley, Weyburn, and Swift Current (Saskatchewan).
The company similarly has facilities in the US, including Williston, North Dakota and Casper, Wyoming.
“Propak Energy Services’ personnel are supported by our engineering and automation capabilities and staff, which differentiate us from other service companies,” he points out.
MAINTAINING HIGH STANDARDS OF QUALITY
Propak’s staff are the core of the company’s success, as its team members are empowered to employ their professional and technical skills to continuously improve product offerings.
“Propak reflects the combined talent, experience, dedication, and diligence of our staff. Innovation is encouraged and no idea is dismissed without careful consideration,” urges Hanson.
Staff are recognized through a variety of means, including annual service awards. The company’s manufacturing personnel specifically are rewarded with numerous safety accolades and afforded the opportunity for career development by gaining skills through in-house training programs.
Propak similarly supports the development of new tradespeople by setting up apprenticeships in cooperation with local technical education institutions.
Moreover, the company values its staff by continuously exploring how it can foster a better culture where its employees are passionate about engineering and manufacturing quality rather than simply obeying the rules of a project.
In order to deeply embed quality within its culture, Propak adheres to four key pillars – leadership emphasis, message and communication clarity, encouragement of peer involvement, and employee ownership of quality improvement.
Regarding the former, the company’s management team instils a culture of quality by engaging with all disciplines throughout every stage of the project.
Moreover, Propak’s integrated organizational structure allows fabrication, construction, and field service personnel to be involved across all project stages, from initial reviews through to closeout sessions where teams reflect on the lessons learnt on a project, thereby fostering continuous improvement.
Quality is further interwoven into the business with message and communication clarity.
“Open, transparent, and clear communication is essential for spreading the message about quality. Propak utilizes a variety of channels to communicate the importance of quality to employees across all levels and departments of the organization,” Hanson emphasizes.
The company additionally greatly focuses on encouraging peer involvement as it relies heavily on the engagement of its workforce to advance many quality aspects.
From developing new internal process standards to delivering detailed questions to engineering teams and suggesting design improvements, employees across the company are encouraged to engage.
Finally, employee ownership of quality improvement resides as a key component in its mission to maintain quality throughout the organization.
“Propak’s culture of quality requires employees to apply their skills and make decisions to foster an environment of continuous quality improvement.”
SUPPORTING SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES
Propak considers sustainability, environmental impact, and quality in the development of all its projects and are key parts of its product design process.
“Through the delivery of products that improve efficiency and reduce emissions, we are able to support our clients in their sustainability initiatives,” Hanson insights.
More specifically, the company focuses on efficiency, modularization, emissions control, produced water recycling, process heat integration, noise control, and spill and leak prevention and control when developing products.
Propak’s Energy Systems business unit was specifically formed to provide sustainable solutions to clients seeking to reduce their emissions and minimize the environmental impact of their activities and business endeavors.
Propak IST likewise delivers on strong environmental commitments, particularly its patented SQ90™ OTSG technology. The equipment’s industry-leading design produces 90 percent quality steam which provides a number of key benefits when compared to typical industry standards.
For instance, the SQ90™ OTSG reduces fuel consumption and the blowdown rate while maintaining the same dry steam flow as competitors, resulting in less greenhouse gas emissions during operation.
Additionally, due to the lowered feedwater flow rate, the technology utilizes less pumping energy while also decreasing the amount of chemicals used in the process.
On the manufacturing front, Propak partners with a local metal recycling company to send carbon and stainless steel, aluminum, wire, and other materials to be recycled, processed, and returned to the market.
“Last year, we recycled just over three million pounds (lbs) of steel product, diverting it from landfills,” Hanson closes.
Propak also possesses an on-site cardboard baler that is used to compress the cardboard boxes its abundance of materials arrive in. As such, the company can collect, bale, and palletize large amounts of cardboard before having it sent to a processing facility.
In 2024, Propak recycled approximately 60,000 lbs of cardboard, as well as recycling soft plastics – such as pallet wrap and bags – separately from its landfill waste facility
As one of Canada’s largest manufacturers of energy processing equipment, the company will continue to create maximum customer value through fit-for-purpose design solutions, reduced capital costs, reliable project execution, and industry-leading product performance, cementing its enviable position.
PROPAK SYSTEMS PARTNERS
