Boiler feedwater system saves energy for meat substitutes manufacturer
Veolia has helped a UK maker of meat substitutes in lowering its energy usage by reducing the requirement for wasteful and energy-intensive boiler blowdown by identifying possible upgrades to its boiler system and suggesting a new reverse osmosis facility for the feedwater.
The customer produces and packages a range of meat substitute products at its UK headquarters. Committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2030, the customer sought to reduce energy consumption in their manufacturing process while lowering overall operating costs.
Having learnt about Veolia’s financial and water-saving solutions as part of an outreach campaign, the team from Veolia was invited to the customer’s facility. The Veolia team identified significant cost savings that could be achieved by implementing a solution that targeted the boiler system.
They found that the feedwater for the facility’s boilers contained a high level of total dissolved solids (TDS) which meant regular blowdown was necessary to purge the system of impurities. The blowdowns wasted valuable energy – and money – so the team focused on this process as a key area for optimisation.
Veolia’s solution was to replace the facility’s existing water softeners with a Sirion Advanced RO unit plus pre-treatment. The solution would consistently and reliably deliver the 4m3/h of feedwater required for the system with a conductivity of <20 µS/cm. This far exceeds the British Standard requirement of softened water and so significantly increases the boiler’s cycles of concentration.
Capable of removing up to 98% of dissolved inorganics and over 99% of large dissolved organics, the Sirion Advanced forms the core of the new installation. It utilises RO technology and low-energy membranes to deliver highly efficient feedwater treatment that operates at a low pressure, reducing operational expenditure.
As a skid-mounted plug-and-play solution, the Sirion Advanced can be installed quickly and easily, reducing system downtime. In this installation, Veolia’s IonSoft Duplex Water Softener acts as pre-treatment to the RO, along with carbon cylinders completing the process and ensuring that the conductivity levels of the feedwater are low enough to avoid excessive impurity build-up within the boiler.
The new water treatment system was implemented swiftly by the team, and the cost savings generated enabled an ROI in just 18 months.
Ben Moore, business development manager at Veolia, noted that the team was very pleased in reducing the customer’s energy consumption and providing such a strong ROI.
“Our solution took a different approach to energy saving, utilising the power of our Sirion Advanced RO unit to tackle energy wastage in an often-overlooked area,” he explained. “We look forward to seeing what other benefits the technology brings to the customer as the system continues to run, and we will work closely with the customer to ensure it continues to deliver throughout its service life.”
