Kai Ziegler has the overall responsibility of MAN Diesel & Turbo’s compressor engineering departments in Oberhausen. He is deeply involved in project AIRMAX and pushed its development from scratch to market maturity. Ever since he finished his studies of mechanical engineering with a doctoral degree at RWTH Aachen, Ziegler dedicated his professional life to research, development and engineering of compressors. He joined MAN in 2005.

1. What are you looking forward to explaining to the audience?

My colleagues Sebastian Parzigas and Dr. Marco Ernst will reflect on the reasons that have led to the development of AIRMAX “mega-trains” for large air separation units. In short, they are mainly used to produce large amounts of oxygen for the subsequent Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. This is a future-oriented process that is used to produce synthetic fuels out of coal or natural gas. They will have a detailed look on the advantages of AIRMAX for our customers – mainly better price, higher efficiency and highest robustness. The audience will be introduced to the technical configuration of AIRMAX and the development of its new axial/radial main air compressor AR-MAX1. My colleagues will also reflect on the “first-time-right” shop tests, the erection of the first references in world scale coal-to-liquid plants and the latest machine concepts for high pressure air separation.

2. Why did you decide to do a webinar with Business Review Webinars?

We have recently organized physical events for our customers at MAN Diesel & Turbo’s Oberhausen site in Germany. The feedback that we got was extremely positive. Now we are trying to allow even more interested parties to see and discuss our latest developments, independent from their residence and without the need of traveling. We regard a webinar with Business Review Webinars as a good option to continue and enlarge the dialogue with our existing and new stakeholders.

3. What do you most enjoy about presenting to a live audience?

It is clearly the chance to get a direct feedback from the audience and to answer their questions as close as possible to the point of time when they occur. In general, I enjoy uncomplicated ways of communication.

 4. What motivates you?

The development of the AIRMAX air compressor train was an ambitious and challenging task. In fact, it is the result of several years of intensive development work. Together with our development partner MTU Aero Engines in Munich we have combined for the first time the advantages of industrial compressors with the advantages of gas turbine or aero engine compressors, resulting in the new blading generation MAX1. It is extremely satisfying – and in a way overwhelming – how the market has responded. We have sold a total of 19 AIRMAX trains even before we had the first one running in the field. That success, supported by first-time-right shop test results, is highly motivating – for all our staff and for sure for myself.

In my every day working life I’m also motivated by the exceptional team spirit we have. When I’m walking through the offices I can often see that colleagues have put press clippings or pictures of AIRMAX on their walls. They are fully committed to our product. That’s very encouraging.

 5. What has been your best holiday and where would you recommend visiting?

That clearly depends on the life situation. I had my most fascinating vacation, when I was a doctoral student, by car from Germany through Spain and Portugal, including Gibraltar. Today I prefer more relaxed holidays in family clubs in Greece or Turkey, where I can play with my two boys in the pool or the sea the whole day long.

Dr Kai U. Ziegler’s colleagues Dr Marco Ernst and  Sebastian Parzigas will be presenting the MAN webinar ‘A New Generation of Air Compressor Trains for Air Separation Units’ on the 5th February at the following times:

8am London / 9am Paris

3pm London / 10am New York