Zoltán Petri studied machine design at the IPARI Secondary Industrial School in Košice. After graduation, he started working in ironworks. His father also worked here.
"I was interested in the process of producing oxygen and product gases. So I started to pay more attention to it. I applied to university, to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, because I enjoyed "engineering" very much. I studied general engineering for three years and then chose energy. After graduating from school, I became a foreman in an oxygen plant and later worked as a foreman on power distribution systems. I currently work as a process engineer at DZ energetika for technical gases. I was interested in the production of technical gases. It is a unique process that only our colleagues at Slovnaft have experience with. It is a process of controlling the production of oxygen, nitrogen and argon, where liquid air is divided into individual components by fractional distillation. That's the interesting thing about the whole thing. It is important to be able to set up the process correctly. When everything is in order, it may seem to someone that nothing needs to be done, but the opposite is true. A lot of interventions are needed to keep the process in balance, and I am very interested in that," says Zoltán Petri.
His other interest is the digitization and modernization of production equipment, currently on a storage tank - a blast furnace gas holder. Until now, the control was manual, now they are working on digitization and creating their own control system.
"Now the dispatcher will call the operator on the gas holder and give the instruction: opening, closing, start, shut down... We want to do it so that the dispatcher has the control directly at hand, so that he can work with it himself and thus relieve another person who will be able to devote himself to his work and will not have to constantly run away," explains Zoltán Petri.
Miroslav Horváth, head of operations at Technical Gases , appreciates Zoli's technical prowess and ability to generate new ideas: "He is a person with an excellent ability to learn new things and apply them in practice. As one of the few employees of the Technical Gases operation, he controlled the equipment on three master sections, so he was destined to get to the position of Technical Gases Operations Coordinator. And later by a clear choice for the position of process engineer , which he currently holds. It is constantly coming up with new ideas to reduce the energy intensity of the production and distribution of gases and hot media."
His colleagues are also happy about the award For Work Loyalty, which was awarded to him by the Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic. As he says, he is lucky with people and a good team. At the same time, working with gases is complicated, you only need to make a mistake once. The award also belongs to his wife, who created space for him to study at home while working, and who continues to support him at work.
