Industry: Food Manufacture
Application: Fans
Site Challenge:
The Heinz factory in Wigan produces over 1.3 billion cans of food per year. This requires 100 tonnes of steam every hour, used for both heating the factory space and sterilisation of canned foods.
The plant’s energy centre has four boilers. Each has two gas-fired burners supplied by Hamworthy Combustion, fitted with fans to push air into the flame. Demand for steam slowly ramps up over several days and also varies seasonally. Heinz wanted to automate this process.
APDS Solution:
APDS specified ABB variable speed drives for use on the plant to take account of the varying demand for steam. These were the perfect solution as they gave the site complete control over the application.
Eight ABB standard drives were installed, rated at 55 kW, to vary the speed of the fans and control the amount of air injected, altering the flame level to match steam demand, no matter the time of year. Improvements in energy efficiency were seen immediately without affecting any production processes.
Benefits:
- Energy centre is 14 percent more efficient than previous boiler house
- Drives more responsive than mechanical dampers, which introduce a time lag
- Reducing the energy used also cut Nitrous Oxide emission
Conclusion: ABB automatic drives control simplifies and improves performance, reduces energy consumption and maintains existing processes.
Footnote:
Please note these customer-approved stories are collected since 2000. While some company names may have changed during this time, the principles and methods described to save energy or improve productivity are applicable today. contact APDS Ltd Bristol: 01179 822 049 www.apds.co.uk
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