Two companies have made significant energy savings by installing equipment from thermal engineering company Babcock Wanson
Eco-Oil, a UK industrial waste oil recycler, has installed a TPC1000B thermal fluid heating system from Babcock Wanson in its Ipswich oil recycling plant.
A fully automatic coil type, multi-pass thermal fluid heater complete with integrated burner, control system and safety devices, the TPC1000B has been installed in Eco-Oil’s process area and is being used to generate heat for the production of processed fuel oil. Eco-Oil is one of the largest suppliers of this fuel product in the UK.
The TPC heater has been supplied with a dual fuel burner facility, running on gas oil but with the option to switch to the recycled processed fuel oil Eco-Oil produces at the plant.
This is the first time Eco-Oil has opted for a thermal fluid heating system having relied on steam boilers previously. Allan Goulden, Eco-Oil engineering director explains his company’s decision to switch: “Reducing energy costs was at the heart of our decision and we knew we could make considerable savings by moving from steam to thermal fluid as the heat source for our process.
We investigated the options thoroughly and decided Babcock Wanson offered the best solution. To date we have been proven right: the system has reduced our energy costs and is easy to use with very good control.” The TPC1000B can achieve 20-50 per cent energy savings when compared with the transfer of the same amount of heat using traditional steam boilers. The system precisely matches fuel input to plant energy requirements for high efficiency. With lower energy input demand also comes lower total exhaust emissions so it’s a ‘win-win’solution for both operating costs and the environment.
High efficiency steam generators
One of the UK’s largest plastic recycling companies, J&A Young has installed a Babcock Wanson ESM Steam Generator at its new recycling facility in Corby.
J&A Young’s first food-grade PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) recycling plant, with the ability to handle up to 30,000 tonnes of PET plastic bottles per annum, requires considerable amounts of steam to heat water as part of the recycling process. PET is used extensively for the production of bottles and other containers for the food industry so the need for an efficient re-cycling process has never been greater. J&A Young engineering manager Jason Hall chose Babcock Wanson as they gave him the most confidence in their knowledge and skills. “We had estimated our steam requirements,” states Hall, “but Babcock Wanson had the experience to understand that we had underestimated this. In fact, the erratic nature of the steam loads would have been impossible to meet under our existing spec. Babcock Wanson was able to identify this as well as provide a very energy efficient solution with a number of enhanced features.”
Babcock Wanson recommended its ESM4000 steam generator complete with exhaust gas recuperator for the feed water system plus an additional heat exchanger between the hot well and the feed pumps to further improve overall efficiency. A coil type steam generator, the ESM provides operating efficiencies of circa 96-97 per cent overall and low emissions. It utilises modern controls to maintain a close ratio between the burner firing rate and water input with inverter drive of both the combustion air and feed water pumps. This ensures close control of both steam output and steam quality and lowest practicable consumption of electrical power.
The benefits of using high efficiency steam generators not only include energy consumption and carbon emissions but also improved safety (the chance of a pressurised water explosion is virtually eliminated), simplicity of control, compact size and they are considerably quieter, cleaner and cooler in operation, making the boiler house a far nicer environment in which to work.
Babcock Wanson offers a complete range of products and services for boiler houses and other process heating needs, from steam boilers, thermal fluid heaters, rapid steam generators and hot water boilers to VOC and odour treatment by thermal oxidation, water treatment or process air heating solutions. The company aims to help optimise customer’s energy production with high quality products and efficient service.
