CFB boiler helps Thompsons of York to make savings.

Last year Controlled Flame Boilers built and installed a packaged steam boiler plant room for animal feed compounders. Thompsons of York.

This was designed to provide them with increased fuel efficiencies and improved product consistency, as well as reducing the cost of production wastage. Alter twelve months of operation, production costs have shown a dramatic 40% saving on fuel, together with improved and more consistent product quality.

The CFB plant room gave the client a self-contained and fully controlled package, which included a UHD 1250 kg/hr dual fuel steam boiler rated at 10 bar/g, together with tanks, vessels and water conditioning plants. The compact size of this unit enabled it to be crane lifted into a very limited space within this silo complex. As the plant room included all the required piping and wiring, it made it very quick and easy to connect up all the services. enabling the whole changeover project to be completed within a week.

To maximise Thompsons cost savings they invested in the installation of a gas mains supply to the site, thereby giving them the option of using a natural gas fuelled steam boiler. This installation work was undertaken by Lattice Energy Services, which worked closely with Controlled Flame Boilers to provide this customer with a solution that would help to dramatically increase their fuel economies.

To provide a suitable solution for this higher capacity application, Controlled Flame Boilers recommended their UHD steam boiler. The three--pass reverse flame furnace design of this steam boiler produces excellent combustion with maximum fuel utilisation. Consequently, since its installation last year, the company has seen its steam generating fuel costs drop from around 60p per tonne of feed produced, to 35p per tonne, thus achieving very substantial fuel savings over the course of the year.

The steam generated by the CFB UHD boiler is used for conditioning animal feed. Once the ingredients are mixed and compounded together, the steam is utilised to make the feed pliable so that it can be formed into pellets ready for delivery. The temperature of the steam also helps to kill any bacteria that might be present in the raw materials.

The quality of the steam for this conditioning process is extremely important, as the dry steam produced by the UHD boiler is able to improve both the texture and overall quality of the end product. Dry steam also helps to reduce the problem of scaling, thereby avoiding the deterioration of the plant's pipe work and steam sets. This in turn reduces maintenance costs, whilst helping to extend the life of the processing equipment. At the same time, as the steam pressure remains constant, product quality is considerably improved helping the production process.

These cost savings have been extremely valuable to Thompsons as they help to contain price rises in order to give them a valuable edge in an extremely competitive market.

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