Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc. (NYSE American: GSAT) announced that leading global petrochemicals provider INEOS Oxide is deploying the Ovinto Sat tracking solution to monitor and safeguard rail and road transport of highly explosive gases across mainland Europe.
Following the staged introduction of the system over several years, INEOS Oxide has expanded the deployment and now installs Ovinto Sat sensors across its entire fleet of tank containers and rail cars, a total of approximately 700 devices to date.
Globalstar satellite communication at the heart of Ovinto Sat enables INEOS Oxide to know the exact location and status of every tank and rail car, continuously and in real-time as they traverse the continent, even when beyond the reach of GSM mobile networks.
This regular, reliable dataflow empowers INEOS Oxide and its supply chain partners to make speedy, well-informed business decisions about each delivery and be alerted to any changes in container/car environmental conditions that might affect the shipment.
“We are extremely pleased with the performance of Ovinto Sat,” says Business Safety, Health & Environmental (SHE) Manager at INEOS, Patrick De Block. “Ovinto Sat’s innovative and powerful tracking platform helps our business in so many ways, the most important of which is ensuring the safe conveyance of our products.”
“There are other solutions out there, but we know that ATEX-certified Ovinto Sat, with its reach and constancy enabled by Globalstar’s satellite technology, is the ideal solution for INEOS Oxide,” De Block added.
Two of the main products that INEOS Oxide transports are Ethylene Oxide and Propylene Oxide, primarily used to manufacture products for the following industries and applications: Agrochemicals, Construction, Pharmaceuticals & Personal Care, Solvents and Inks, Surfactants, and detergents. Both chemicals are highly explosive, flammable, and carcinogenic to humans and animals.
Ensuring Safety for All
When it comes to transporting such volatile materials safely, says De Block, “We need to know where our assets are, and what their internal temperature is. Ovinto Sat provides this and at the same time is helping us to optimize our systems.”
This solution reduces accident risk in transportation by monitoring the condition of the chemicals in each rail car and tank while providing valuable shipment information for the supply chain. The essential parameter for the safe transport of these hazardous products is temperature.
After evaluating several alternatives in the marketplace, INEOS Oxide decided to deploy Ovinto’s PT1000 solution that monitors the surface temperature of the tank’s or rail car’s contents.
In the event of an emergency, Ovinto Sat can provide stakeholders and public authorities with a detailed understanding of the tank’s or rail car’s location and conditions.
Critically, thanks to satellite technology, all stakeholders can be confident that IoT transmissions from tanks and cars are reliable, ubiquitous, and uninterrupted. This ensures the very highest level of safety, benefitting and protecting supply chain partners, infrastructure authorities, and rail and road users.
Multiple Operational Benefits
Ovinto Sat provides myriad operational benefits. This IoT-empowered solution gives INEOS Oxide instant updates about whether a rail tank car has been loaded or unloaded or is ready to be redeployed. This helps INEOS Oxide enhance return on investment and optimization of assets.
The company uses the system to set up geofences around customer locations. INEOS Oxide can provide granular detail on car or tank temperature alongside delivery logistics as the shipment nears its destination.
“We are now able to harvest so much data, we can make informed predictions regarding temperature fluctuation, and any necessary requirement for refrigeration, as our shipments move across countries; this digital information is really valuable for both our operations and continuous assurance of safety,” De Block notes.
Ovinto Sat is built around Globalstar’s low-power STX3 chipset, the smallest satellite transmitter of its kind on the market. Since it is battery-powered, customers can monitor hazardous materials in unpowered environments such as rail cars and tanks. Because of its very low power consumption, the Ovinto Sat battery can last up to eight years.
Frederick Ronse, Ovinto CEO, commented: “With our ongoing engineering enhancements, we will continue to help INEOS Oxide reduce risk, increase the safety of its cars and tanks, and enhance supply chain decision-making. Globalstar technology is our communications core due to its ubiquitous reach, reliability, and power efficiency compared to GSM.”
“The need for reliable, resilient connectivity is particularly acute when transporting potentially hazardous materials. With no GSM signal over many areas of continental Europe, satellite is the only reliable way of communicating, and we are proud to collaborate with Ovinto to support INEOS,” commented Mark O’Connell, General Manager at Globalstar EMEA & APAC.
About INEOS
INEOS is a global petrochemicals manufacturer, comprising 36 individual businesses. We operate 194 facilities in 29 countries throughout the world, employing over 26,000 people. INEOS makes the raw materials and energy used for everyday life.
Its products make an indispensable contribution to society by providing the most sustainable options for a wide range of societal needs.
For example, preservation of food and clean water; construction of wind turbines, solar panels, and other renewable technologies; construction of lighter and more fuel-efficient vehicles and aircraft; for medical devices and applications; for clothing and apparel; and insulation and other industrial and home applications.
In recent years INEOS has diversified with the launch of INEOS Automotive and INEOS Hygienics, the acquisition of iconic British brand Belstaff, and an ever-expanding sports portfolio. A blend of opportunism, the belief that it can add value in pursuit of its core values, and passion for adventure.
About Ovinto
Ovinto helps its customers to remotely monitor processes and goods and supplies them with critical data in a format customizable to users’ requirements. Ovinto developed a unique ATEX Ovinto Sat monitoring device enabling the monitoring of extremely hazardous materials in unpowered transport units.
In 2011 Ovinto Sat achieved the highest possible ATEX standard certification for explosion safety. The solution is used for monitoring rail tank cars and tank containers carrying a wide variety of hazardous materials. Ovinto Sat can deliver business-critical data on engine operating hours, fluid levels, temperature, pressure, shocks, etc.
In addition to Ovinto Sat hardware, Ovinto has also developed a reference Supply Chain Optimisation SaaS platform dedicated to rail and intermodal freight to support the IT infrastructure of its customers with complementary services, increasing efficiency and reducing costs. www.ovinto.com. See also https://www.youtube.com/user/OvintoVideo
About Globalstar, Inc.
Globalstar empowers its customers to connect, transmit, and communicate in smarter ways — easily, quickly, securely, and affordably — offering reliable satellite and terrestrial connectivity services as an international telecom infrastructure provider.
The company’s LEO satellite constellation assures a secure data transmission for connecting and protecting assets, transmitting key operational data, and saving lives — from any location — for consumers, businesses, and government agencies across the globe. Globalstar’s terrestrial spectrum, Band 53, offers carriers, cable companies, and system integrators a versatile, fully licensed channel with a growing ecosystem to improve their customers’ wireless connectivity.
In addition to SPOT GPS messengers, Globalstar offers next-generation IoT hardware and software products for efficiently tracking and monitoring assets, processing smart data at the edge, and managing analytics with cloud-based telematics solutions to drive safety, productivity, and profitability. www.globalstar.com
For media information:
Gavan Murphy
Director of Marketing, EMEA and APAC
Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd.
gavan.murphy@globalstar.com
Cynthia Ritchie
White Tiger Communications
cynthia@whitetigercommunications.net
+44 (0)20 4518 7555
Frederick Ronse
Founder and Chief Executive, Ovinto
frederick.ronse@ovinto.com
+32 (0)9 248 09 13
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