Steam boiler fuel savings of 6.5% achieved

With energy at the top of the agenda for the process industry, manufacturers are constantly looking for new ways to increase efficiency. Macphie of Glenbervie, the UK's leading independent food ingredients manufacturer, recently achieved energy savings of 6.5% after installing the Fuel+ system supplied by Maxsys. Award-winning Macphie of Glenbervie in Scotland manufactures a wide range of high quality branded ingredients for the bakery, food service and food manufacturing sectors.

The site at Glenbervie is among the most advanced in Europe, and encompasses three processing plants for UHT, powder and paste.

These plants all require the generation of steam for the manufacturing process, in particular the sterilisation of UHT products.

With spiralling fuel costs putting pressure on the business, and a commitment to meet targets based on the tonnage of carbon produced annually, the company decided to take matters into its own hands.

'Energy is a real issue for us,' said Philip Annandale, environmental manager at Macphie of Glenbervie.

'Every year, we are trying to decrease the amount of energy used per tonne of manufactured products, and meet the requirements for the Food and Drink Federation climate change levy agreement.

We decided to take a pro-active approach to the issue and looked into relevant technologies that could be used, including the Fuel+ system from Maxsys'.

Fuel+ is a magnetic fuel treatment system that improves combustion by applying a finely calibrated magnetic field directly onto the fuel.

This produces a cleaner burn, reducing emissions as well as energy use.

The system is installed directly into oil or gas fuel lines, either horizontally or vertically onto the existing pipe work.

With no moving parts and no electrical supply requirement, the design and high standard of engineering guarantees optimum long term reliability.

'We were initially very wary of the Fuel+ system - it simply seemed too good to be true, and we wondered why more people weren't using it' said Mr Annandale: 'However, we realised that it was a relatively new technology that many businesses weren't yet aware of, so we looked into it further and decided to go for it'.

Maxsys offers guaranteed energy savings of at least 5% once Fuel+ has been installed.

The plant efficiency is independently measured by ABB Engineering Services both before and after the system is installed - this is done by producing a 'Plant Test Protocol'.

If the 5% saving is not achieved, Maxsys offers to return all costs to the customer, remove the system and return the plant to its original configuration.

This has never been necessary, but means that Maxsys customers really have nothing to lose.

Working with Maxsys, Macphie identified the most suitable plant to install the Fuel+ system at the Glenbervie site, with the dual objectives of reducing emissions and lowering energy costs.

There are two boilers at the site providing steam for the production process; one of these is kept on standby for periods of high demand, but the lead boiler is in constant use, and it was here that the Fuel+ system was installed in November 2005.

'The installation was very quick, and it only took a few hours' said Mr Annandale: 'The pipework had already been prepared so the whole thing was very easy.

There have been no issues with it at all'.

Since the Fuel+ installation, the analysis performed by ABB showed a reduction in fuel consumption by 6.5% on the lead boiler.

This means that the boiler requires 6.5% less fuel to produce the same amount of steam that it did previously.

Mr Annandale concluded: 'Fuel+ has proved to be a very worthwhile investment.

It has more than delivered the savings we were promised by Maxsys and paid for itself within nine months.

I am very pleased with the system'.