Kosan Crisplant AS

One-stop solutions

With over 60 years of experience Kosan Crisplant AS has earned a reputation as a leading supplier of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) filling equipment and services.

The company was founded as Crisplant in 1951 by Svend Christensen to develop transport systems for milk, before later transferring its knowledge base in to the emerging LPG market. Trading group manager Christian Fredberg elaborates: “When LPG was commercialised, Denmark was second only to the US in selling it on a commercial basis. Our founder learned that the knowledge that the company was already using could be applied in the LPG industry, so he took a chance and began building filling equipment for LPG producers, and that was the start of the business as it is today.”

During the following decades the company began to evolve rapidly through organic growth and acquisitions, which allowed it to establish a strong base within the LPG market and incorporate new technologies and expertise. During the 1960s the Danish Kosan group acquired all of the shares in Crisplant and finally added the Kosan name to the company’s identity in 1969. The company has continued to develop market-leading technologies while undergoing various management buyouts and takeovers. Today Kosan Crisplant is fully owned by the Seera investment bank.

LPG solutions for any need
The far-reaching experience of Kosan Crisplant and the high level of expertise it has retained over the years have allowed the company to develop a comprehensive portfolio of LPG solutions ranging from single filling machines with a 50 cylinder per hour capacity to complete filling plants capable of filling 12,000 cylinders per hour. Furthermore, Kosan Crisplant offers solutions for the refurbishment and re-use of cylinders, and its ability to deliver both bespoke and standardised equipment has enabled the company to establish itself in all of the world’s LPG markets.

Worldwide presence
“We have just completed a count and Kosan Crisplant equipment is now used in 131 countries,” Christian says. “We are strong in Asia, especially in India and Indonesia, and we are highly active throughout the Middle East. We have a good presence in all the countries around the Mediterranean and in North Africa and we are also very strong in South America. These regions represent the company’s key markets. We consider the LPG market to be a small niche market where everybody knows each other and of course we want to be the supplier to all of the operators in the industry, including all of the large and small oil and gas companies.”

Recent projects include the delivery of two high-speed filling plants to Gasco in Saudi Arabia and the opening of a similar plant for Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) in Bolivia. The new plant will secure the supply of LPG to the Bolivian capital La Paz and was inaugurated by President Evo Morales on 22 March 2014. The upgraded filling plant replaces a 30 year old LPG filling plant and includes a high-speed Flexspeed line for filling cylinders with screw valves. YPFB’s Senkata filling plant in El Alto accounts for more than a third of Bolivia’s LPG production and is a vital component in supplying LPG to the La Paz region. The upgraded facility will increase the production of the plant by as much as 50 per cent.

Safe and efficient small-scale filling
As well as supplying its traditional products to grateful customers throughout the world, Kosan Crisplant continues to develop new innovations to ensure that it is always on hand with market-leading solutions to its customers’ needs. During May 2013 the company introduced the highly successful KCFiLL1, a brand new machine developed for low capacity filling. The machine was first deployed in Panama, where nine machines were put to work at Panagas’ filling plant in El Roble, and the KCFiLL1 has gone on to become a major seller in many of Kosan Crisplant’s key markets. The KCFiLL1 was developed to allow for safe and efficient cylinder filling at smaller scales that can match the safety of larger operations. Christian elaborates: “For many years it has been understood that centralised filling is the most effective option for filling LPG cylinders and this is very efficient in Central America and Europe where there is significant infrastructure. However, in countries where these facilities do not exist it is necessary to de-centralise the filling. For this reason we developed the KCFiLL1 filling machine, which is very cost-effective when compared to other low capacity filling options. Our mission was also that everybody should be able to fill gas cylinders safely. Outside of Europe decanting is often used to fill cylinders, but this is very unsafe. With the KCFiLL1 filling machine we offer smaller filling companies a safe solution at a very low price.”

A future beyond LPG
Throughout the rest of 2014 Kosan Crisplant will focus on delivering safe and dependable solutions to clients in all of its key markets and on further developing its newly established components trading division. Founded as KC ProSupply, the division supplies parts to customers operating throughout the entire gas industry, including LPG, cryogenic gases, ammonia and natural gases. As Christian concludes: “We recently acquired a company in Swansea, Wales called RMS as part of the company’s strategy of growing its trading division and the purchase also gives us a stronger footprint in the UK. We have diversified to sell into new markets and this is in line with our strategy over the next few years where we will be looking to move into the natural gas market.”

Kosan Crisplant AS
Services: LPG filling services and equipment