Interview with TAYRAŞ Mechanical Maintenance Manager Mr. Nuri Taşdemir
TAYRAŞ, which operates Türkiye’s first and only refinery that produces high quality base oils from end-of-life lubricants with hydro-treatment technology, functions almost like an academy with the qualified employment it provides and the young engineers it trains.
The base oil refinery established by TAYRAŞ in Bilecik, Türkiye with local and national capital, is steadily advancing towards ambitious goals, powered by the determination and excitement of young engineers from different disciplines, while working towards global decarbonization and sustainability targets and strengthening the power of the Turkish economy. TAYRAŞ meets the training needs of its staff with academicians and experts invited from all over the world. The company transforms the knowledge, experience and technical application skills acquired into corporate memory and transfers it to its stakeholders through consultancy services on national and international level.
TAYRAŞ Mechanical Maintenance Manager Mr. Nuri Taşdemir is one of the young engineers employed by TAYRAŞ. Taşdemir, who has dreamed of working in high-budget investments requiring advanced technology and large projects managed by qualified teams since his student years, has reached his dream thanks to TAYRAŞ.
Mechanical Maintenance Manager Mr. Nuri Taşdemir, who has witnessed the success story of TAYRAŞ since its establishment, states that they work with team spirit and do their jobs with dedication and love. Explaining that TAYRAŞ management has created an environment where they can showcase their talents with the trust it has in its personnel and the opportunities it provides, Taşdemir gives the good news that they will open the second facility in Türkiye in the near future with local and national capital and qualified workforce.
How did working at TAYRAŞ affect you as a young engineer?
I had experience working in sectors such as oil and natural gas for a while. These experiences gave me the idea that every engineer should be involved in every stage of a refinery project established from scratch. When I learned about the preparations for the establishment of TAYRAŞ, I believed that I should take part in this unique project. I can say that working in this project, one of the firsts in our country, and being a member of the TAYRAŞ family, which moves forward with the slogan “Always one step forward”, was a unique opportunity for my professional development and a turning point in my career.
In this journey, which includes the processes of bringing the most innovative refining technologies developed in the world to Türkiye, we took part in the rise of a facility step by step at every point by blending international academic and technical knowledge. We have completed the testing and integration processes through R&D studies that adapt the know-how we have acquired and the modern technology we have transferred to the needs and conditions of our country.
We have witnessed TAYRAŞ becoming a facility that produces its own know-how as a domestic and national technology base, shares its experience, and even provides consultancy to other countries, creating added value to the country’s economy while protecting the environment and the future of the planet. TAYRAŞ has been a very good school for me in terms of both education and experience. It is a source of excitement and pride for me to work at TAYRAŞ, which is one of the rare facilities in the world in its field with the superior technology it uses and product quality.
We see that TAYRAŞ stands as an important employment area for qualified workforce. How does TAYRAŞ achieve this?
TAYRAŞ has a team of engineers with an average age of 30. TAYRAŞ equips its young engineer team with academic, technical and applied knowledge by inviting experts and competent people in their fields from abroad and meeting the training needs of the staff. In addition, the company creates new job opportunities for young engineers, transfers its knowledge and experience to young engineers, and makes a significant contribution to their professional development. Our company culture gives us the opportunity to reach promising young people and transform them into people who can produce value-added technologies in their fields.
The fact that the non-changing engineer team that founded and operates TAYRAŞ, creates a common corporate memory in terms of experience and know-how. The technology we work on requires the collaboration of many engineering disciplines. In this way, interdisciplinary professional development and progress is achieved. All of these is achieved thanks to TAYRAŞ’ management approach, which confides in and encourages its personnel and entrusts large projects to young engineers. At TAYRAŞ, we have a management that believes in continuous education, career development, creating a talented team, the power of teamwork and R&D. Thanks to these opportunities provided by TAYRAŞ to young engineers, we can better demonstrate our capabilities. We are rewarded not only according to our performance but also according to our contribution to the development process.
"TAYRAŞ, which transforms the technological innovation into value-added products and knowledge base, much needed for Türkiye’s industrial sustainability, through R&D, innovation, testing and integration processes, works with the excitement of domestic and national production."
Where do TAYRAŞ’ facility infrastructure, capacity and trained manpower stand compared to the world?
In 6 years, we have met many foreign professionals specialized in the field of refining and worked with leading companies in the sector worldwide. The feedback we received from all of them, without exception, is that TAYRAŞ is perfect in terms of its facility infrastructure, capacity and trained manpower. We have no underperformance in competing with the world, on the contrary, we outperform. We learned and trained so well that we came to the point where we could share our experience with others.
Our slogan “Creating Value by Upcycling” actually describes everything we want to do. We create value-added products and value-added knowledge from waste that mixes with soil and water and pollutes the planet. We contribute to both the planet and the country’s economy. As a team, we have internalized the importance of the work we do and understand its ecological, social and economic benefits. Perhaps the main force that makes us so successful as TAYRAŞ is the belief and love we have for what we do. When a person loves what he does and believes in its importance, he becomes much more successful and never gets tired.
Is TAYRAŞ’ success registered according to objective criteria?
We confirm our success with the awards we receive one after another from impartial and prestigious institutions and organizations. We received the third-place award in Türkiye in the Energy Efficiency category of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry’s 18th Green Transformation Awards. We also received a special jury award in the environmentally friendly product TIDRABASE category. The green transformation awards given by ICI are very prestigious awards.
In addition, we received the first prize in the Waste Management category at the 10th Sustainable Business Awards conducted by the Sustainability Academy.We also received the first prize in Turkey in the medium-sized enterprises category at the Efficiency Project Awards given by the Ministry of Industry and Technology. Finally, we received the first prize in the Innovation Strategy field of the SME category in Inovalig, created by the Turkish Exporters Assembly. These awards we have received in different fields and different categories make us proud and motivate us to work harder and do better.
What other activities regarding sustainability undertakes TAYRAŞ, one of the leading stakeholders in waste lube oil management in Türkiye?
As TAYRAŞ, we act with the awareness of environmental and economic sustainability to protect the right of future generations to live in a healthy environment and work in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Within the scope of Zero Waste, it is very important for businesses and social communities to take responsibility for the environment and sustainability. TAYRAŞ Family, together with all our units and stakeholders, acts with this awareness at every stage of the production process, from goods supply to logistics, and we take care that every step we take is compatible and consistent with the mission of our work. This approach of ours sets an example for both Türkiye and the world.
Could you share more about other work you carried out as Maintenance Manager?
We consider personnel health and safety above all else during maintenance and repair work at our refinery. Each component in our refinery is of critical importance and works integrated with each other through an automation system. Our goal is to ensure that this entire integrated system operates uninterruptedly and sustainably. For this reason, we operate the high-tech distillation unit and hydro-treatment unit in our refinery, as well as the integrated tank area, auxiliary units, hydrogen production facility and purification facility, at international standards with advanced technologies and our competent personnel. We have daily, weekly and annual maintenance and repair periods in our facility, where important components such as rotating equipment, instruments, tanks, static equipment, process equipment, valve groups and pipelines in all these systems are important and each part is critical for the sustainability of production.
During these periods, we aim to prevent malfunctions by regularly maintaining the units and equipment in our facility and to keep the losses that may occur in production to a minimum by immediately intervening in mechanical elements with our technical staff. We aim to move our process further with the improvements we make and the projects we develop. In addition to increasing the efficiency of our machinery and equipment, we especially take into account our goals of energy efficiency, zero waste and carbon footprint reduction. We monitor the effectiveness of our maintenance work with key performance indicators (KPIs) in our maintenance management system. The positive feedback we receive shows us that we are on the right track.
Could you tell us about TAYRAŞ’ future goals and near-term strategies?
To be a company that does not content with just technology transfer but processes and develops this technology with a local and national understanding and produces its own technology, to improve its human resource power, to protect its corporate memory and to have a say in the foreign market by producing the world’s best, highest quality upcycled base oil and to contribute to the Turkish economy. Our future goal is to grow stronger. We are excited and happy to be getting closer to these goals day by day, thanks to our management that believes in us, trusts us and gives us a vision, and with the power of teamwork.
Our staff, who have been working in the process from the establishment of our facility until now, have received training from the most expert engineers in the world and have reached the level of working on the best available technologies and producing their own know-how, and have started to provide consultancy at national and international levels with their unique application experience. We are now in a position to carry out turnkey projects. We organize meetings for facility engineering works at home and abroad. At the same time, as TAYRAŞ, we have a plan to bring the second refining facility to our country with a large and ambitious investment. We would like to thank our managers for providing us with a working environment where we can realize our dreams and showcase our talents.
"TAYRAŞ management believes in the importance of training, professional development and teamwork. TAYRAŞ management, which focuses on R&D and innovation studies and meets the training needs of its staff with experts invited from abroad, provides young engineers with an environment where they can showcase their talents."
