Today we hear from KrioSystem CEO Piotr Grzegory, who enthuses that 2019 has been “one of the best years” for the Polish company.
With more than 20 years’ experience and a skilled team of engineers and specialists, KrioSystem supplies its clients with state-of-the-art cryogenic devices and installations that are applied for science, industrial and medical purposes.
KrioSystem’s work is divided into two application areas based on the temperature level:
- Liquid helium temperatures (helium cryogenics), which covers systems operating in temperatures below -269 degrees Celsius.
- Liquid nitrogen temperatures (industrial cryogenics, LNG, cryobiology), which covers systems operating in temperatures between -70 and -200 degrees Celsius. These are applications including liquefied oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, methane (LNG) and other technical gases.
Gasworld (GW): As 2019 draws to a close, tell us about your year and what KrioSystem has been up to?
Piotr Grzegory (PG): This is one of the best years for KrioSystem. We have seen around 20% growth in our operation sales income and this actually concerns our two lines of businesses- industrial cryogenics and helium cryogenics.
It was a particularly excellent year for our helium part. We are completing our biggest cryogenic engineering project so far, namely cryogenic distribution system for a proton accelerator under construction in Lund, Sweden.
We also see significant growth in cryogenic food processing where we engineer the cryogenic infrastructure.
All this happened thanks to our team effort, our passion for the work we are doing and creativity in approaching the challenges.
GW: Where have the business opportunities been for KrioSystem in 2019?
PG: We see opportunities in food processing – and this is not only processing vegetables and meat. This is also innovative processing of ice creams with liquid nitrogen.
This is an interesting market both in respects of growth and engineering required for this.
The helium business is very active and there are many helium cryogenics projects ongoing: ITER in France where the fusion reactor is under construction, ESS in Sweden, FAIR in Germany, CERN is modifying its biggest cryogenic accelerator in the world.
KrioSystem is very active in all these projects. Generally speaking, Europe is quite strong in helium cryogenic engineering and there are many opportunities in this field of market.
GW: What’s been ‘cool’ in cryogenics this year?
PG: It is definitely the cryogenic helium business. The biggest cryogenic engineering project is the fusion reactor under construction in ITER in Cadarache.
The works there has sped up significantly and the civil works are under finalisation and cryogenic equipment is in delivery.
The biggest of its kind is the linear accelerator in ESS in Lund – this is also one of the biggest cryogenic engineering projects recently under construction. KrioSystem is a key component supplier to this project.
GW: What trends do you see in the marketplace that are likely to shape the products and services KrioSystem develops and offers in the future?
PG: In industrial cryogenics, the food processing demand for innovation and product development is quite large.
Cryobiology is developing rapidly as well – there is growing demand for cryopreservation both in terms of sample storage and management plus cryogen distribution infrastructure.
GW: Finally, if you had one thing on your bucket list for the gases industry, what would it be and why?
PG: Product innovation. The market needs new products and developments, our customers have more work to do and they need to focus on their work.
We need to deliver to them cryogenics which is effective and reliable tool so they can achieve more than presently.
The 2019 in Review Series continues next week with FasTest, CO2Meter, Cryospain, HVM and Worthington.