By Andrew Perks
For those who don’t know ASTI (Ammonia Safety & Training Institute), they are reputed to be the first name in Ammonia safety training, based in the US with affiliates around the globe in six continents.
Andrew Perks
Andrew Perks is a subject expert in ammonia refrigeration. Since undertaking his apprenticeship in Glasgow in the 1960s he has held positions of contracts engineer, project engineer, refrigeration design engineer, company director for a refrigeration contracting company and eventually owning his own contracting company and low temperature cold store. He is now involved in adding skills to the ammonia industry, is merSETA accredited and has written a variety of unit standards for SAQA that define the levels to be achieved in training in our industry.
ASTI was established in 1987 in Watsonville, California and incorporated as a Non-Profit 501(c)(3) organisation in 1992. They are dedicated to making ammonia (NH3) the safest hazardous material in the world. In lieu of the advancements being made in the natural energy fields, this is of prime importance. Whether you like it or not ammonia is going to be one of the prime green energy sources of the future. It is a binding agent for hydrogen as, along with nitrogen, these are the two chemicals of ammonia. Ammonia, unlike some of the other refrigerants, is going to be with us for some time so you’d better get used to it.
ASTI specialises in bringing leaders from industry, government and public safety (commonly known as the tripod) together to improve prevention, preparedness and emergency response. Their vision is to operationalise the USA Environmental Protection Agencies Integrated Contingency Plan (one plan) so that the tripod command team mentioned above can use a concept of operations (CONOPS) to prevent hazardous and stop emergency events when they are small.
ASTI’s vision of training and emergency response planning related to their Ammonia safety began with the city of Watsonville Fire Department 1987 and quickly spread through the US, Europe and Scandinavia due to connections with Refrigeration Engineers and Technicians Association, International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration, Global Cold Chain Alliance and the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses. Today ASTI’s influence has spread widely over the whole world, and now with A Perks Enterprises affiliating with them for Southern Africa.