INEOS Oxide is equipping all its European tank containers and rail tank cars with Ovinto Sat satellite IoT tracking and monitoring solution

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar, 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.

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.

"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 which 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.

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 optimisation of assets.

"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.

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.