16 heat recovery
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perfectly matched. This results in a system that is more The Heinz factory in Wigan is the largest food factory
efficient, reliable and accurate. And with less work to in Europe. The 55-acre site produces canned soups, baked
do on-site, the installation process is simpler, safer and beans, pasta and puddings for the UK and European
speedier. market, and its on-site energy centre generates up to
It is a similar story at Smurfit Kappa UK’s corrugated 140 tonnes of steam per hour to keep the canning lines
board factory in Weston-Super-Mare, England, where running.
steam system improvements delivered by Spirax Sarco Under the new deal, Spirax Sarco engineers will survey
have cut boiler fuel costs by 21 per cent. the site every six months, highlighting any traps that need
Recycling condensate and flash steam back to the maintenance from teams at Heinz. Spirax Sarco specialists
boiler has also halved the amount of water treatment will spend around ten days on site each year, checking,
chemicals needed and reduced the site’s water bill by tagging and recording the condition of each steam trap.
between E334 and E445 a month. The biggest single “When Spirax Sarco carried out the original survey
contributor to this success is a FREME system. The they put in a conservative estimate of savings and we
project also included improved temperature controls for ended up saving much more,” says Barry Aspey, the
the Smurfit Kappa’s process steam and the installation of utilities manager for Heinz. “That helped us decide to opt
automatic pump traps to clear condensate from key items for the three-year contract. If the new savings estimates
of plant reliably, even if the traps sometimes have to work are correct, the contract offers excellent value for money
against significant back pressure. and should help us reduce our carbon emissions by
According to Andy Bale, Smurfit Kappa’s engineering 200 tonnes a year.”
manager, the project was part of a wider initiative to save Catalent Pharma Solutions is also reaping the
energy at the factory: “We are working with the Carbon rewards, thanks to its decision to swap old shell-and-tube
Trust to improve the energy management in a number calorifiers for compact Spirax Sarco EasiHeat steam-to-
of different areas, including compressors, steam and hot water systems. Spirax Sarco calculated that Catalent
electrical equipment. Spirax Sarco was very professional could save E7200 a year in energy costs by replacing a
and managed the whole process for the steam system single 540kW calorifier with an EasiHeat.
while keeping me up to date with every single detail. Catalent has been gradually replacing its old heat
We’re very pleased with the results.” exchangers over that past five years, and now has nine
The new FREME system was supplied as a EasiHeat systems in place. The biggest saving for Catalent
prefabricated, skid-mounted rig, comprising a flash is in downtime and maintenance costs, according to
separation vessel and two plate heat exchangers. engineering manager Arthur Burnett: “The main thing
Pressurised condensate from the production process is that we now have no summer shutdown, when it
enters the separator where it splits into separate streams of used to take two weeks. Also, we can look after the heat
condensate and flash steam. Each stream passes through exchangers with one utility engineer instead of four, so it
a separate heat exchanger, where it heats the boiler frees up time for our maintenance team. Previously, there
feedwater. The two streams are then recombined and sent was so much work involved with the calorifiers that we
back to the boiler feedtank. sometimes had to bring in contractors to service them,
Crucially, FREME systems are typically positioned which was obviously another expense.”
downstream of the boiler feed pump. This allows Shell-and-tube heat exchangers are pressure vessels and
feedwater temperatures to be elevated well above 100°C, must therefore be dismantled annually for an insurance
without pump cavitation. In the case of Smurfit Kappa, inspection. EasiHeat systems instead rely on stainless steel
this has enabled the company to have heated feedwater plate heat exchangers (PHEs), which eliminate the need
entering the boiler at 130 and 140°C, rather than the for stripping down. PHEs are also extremely compact and
85 or 90°C that was previously possible. energy efficient.
On 3rd November, FREME technology won the Catalent’s Swindon factory encapsulates various
energy category at the prestigious annual Institution products in soft gel capsules. Between them, the new heat
of Chemical Engineers’ awards event which rewards exchangers serve two hot water systems, one at 80°C for
excellence and innovation in chemical engineering. process water and air conditioning, and the other at 60°C
for hand washing.
Steam traps and calorifiers too
“The old calorifiers were over 20 years old,” says
Steam trap management is another important way of Burnett. “They were not very efficient, slow to heat up
saving energy. Heinz expects to cut more than four and caused a bottleneck in the process.” In contrast,
percent from its energy consumption over the next three he says that the EasiHeat units are more than equal
years at its Wigan factory in Northern England after to the task: “We used to run three large calorifiers for
signing up for a steam trap management contract with one application and replaced them with two compact
Spirax Sarco. The decision to opt for the new contract EasiHeat systems. Although we always have one on
followed great success with a previous, one-off steam trap permanent stand-by, for safety and maintenance
survey, which saved enough energy and treated water to precautions, we’ve never even had to use it for an
pay for itself in less than nine months. application because they’re so efficient.” n
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