|
Water and energy savingAt present, the trend of reduction of water and energy consumption in high capacity laundries is very strong. Looking at the long-term price development in water and energy, it is obvious that the trend is well-grounded. The ever-present issue of environment and sustainable development is another good argument for reducing consumption of natural resources. The company Procter&Gamble Professional has been working very intensively in this problem area for many years. We cooperate with the VUT (Technical University) in Brno, Machine Engineering Faculty, and several graduation and dissertation thesis on these topics have been developed already. Comparing to our competitors, our approach is different: we treat every customer as an individual. Every day, we work with various clients, equipped with older or most modern technologies and devices, do laundry from hospitals or hotels, and use continuous batch washers or washer extractors. Hence, we know that their requirements and limitations may be very different. What, in particular, are we able to provide for our future customers?1. Optimisation of thermal and water management for continuous batch washers 2. Optimisation of water and thermal management for large washer extractors 3. Optimisation of steam management 4. New control systems for continuous batch washers with integrated optimisation 5. Measurement and adjustment of tumble dryers and ironers Optimisation of thermal and water management for continuous batch washersContinuous batch washers are considered as a dominating water consumer and major energy (steam) consumer. Hence, a lot of attention is paid to their optimisation. The company Procter&Gamble Professional optimises washing systems to a really high level. We are able to optimise both the thermal mode (by means of heat exchanger) and the water mode, too, following the newest yet well-tried trends. Contrary to the competition, we provide more options for heat exchanger - depending on real customer´s needs. We optimise the water management by means of modernised water recirculation, which is not mere tightening taps - hence the saving does not mean worse quality of washing process (in particular, rinsing). For more detailed explanation, please refer to professional publications Saving ... Part 1 and Saving ... Part 2, published in the magazine for laundry business (Informátor). What makes us different from the competition? Individual approach, flexible solution, high management level and effectiveness! The content of optimisation for a continuous batch washer designed by the Procter&Gamble Professional comprises the following stages:1. Gathering necessary parameters from the customer and from the operation analysis. 2. Development of a mathematical model for the continuous batch washer (created in cooperation with the Technical University Brno, Machine Engineering Faculty). Based on the mathematical model, our specialists decide what type of heat exchanger is the best for the particular conditions. Possible saving are computed. Example from a mathematical model for a continuous batch washer
3. Detailed individual design of the system. 4. After the installation, following from continuous measuring whose results are saved in our databases, we document the achieved saving. As the result, we present our individual plan of the optimisation, which precisely meets the requirements for the particular continuous batch washer and the conditions in the laundry. The following illustrations will show you an example of possible optimisation. Special installation of heat exchanger
(Above) This example shows a special installation of the heat exchanger suitable for washing large portions of hospital laundry at higher temperature: the standard system would result in mere minimum or rather zero saving (for more comprehensive information please refer to the publication Saving ... Part 2). If the dominating portion of the laundry comes from hotel operation, it is recommended to apply the standard solution for the heat exchanger (below). However, in this case the most important thing is the system effectiveness, which - in the systems produced by the Procter&Gamble Professional - is the top level because all principles for effective function of heat exchangers are carefully followed. Standard installation of heat exchanger
It is obvious from the illustration that the optimisation systems produced by the Procter&Gamble Professional do not include just a heat exchanger and pipeline but also a complete regulation system (induction flowmeters, automatic valves, a control computer, pumps, etc.) It is the advanced regulation system that makes our systems so effective. In comparison to the competition, we use smaller heat exchangers (but not with a smaller working area) hence they are cheaper - so, although you add the regulation, the investment in the system is more or less the same. However, the effectiveness is much higher. The systems with the special and standard installations of the heat exchanger and new control of the continuous batch washer with integrated optimisation have already been in operation in the Czech Republic. Optimisation of water and thermal management for washer extractorsThe continuous batch washers show considerably lower water consumption than the washer extractors. The saving is the result of the water recirculation: the water from extraction (press machine or centrifugal machine) is good enough for rinsing, and the water from rinsing is good enough for main wash and pre-wash (refer to Saving ... Part 1). A similar system - recirculation tanks - is applicable for washer extractors, too. In addition, similarly to the continuous batch washers, you can use the waste heat from washer extractors by means of the heat exchanger system. Both systems are provided by the Procter&Gamble Professional to the customers: similarly to the continuous batch washers, for either of these systems the same professional design that suits customer´s needs is produced, and the saving are computed accordingly. Optimisation of water consumption in washer extractors
Optimisation of steam managementIn addition, the company Procter&Gamble provides their customers with optimisation in the field of steam and condensate management. Although this problem area has been discussed many times, in practice there are laundries whose steam management is very poor. Therefore, energy loss hence the financial loss may be huge. Even worse, it may be just a defective part worth a few tens of thousand EURO but the laundry loses hundreds of thousands. There is a modern trend in the area of steam management that makes sense, to retain and use low-pressure steam by means of an expander. Steam management with leak of low-pressure steam in the atmosphere
Let´s have a look at the steam management with leak of low-pressure steam in the air (above). A boiler produces high-pressure steam (e.g. 10 bar), temperature 185°C. The steam is distributed in all steam appliances. The appliances with indirect heating (tumble dryers, ironers, machines for chemical cleaning, etc.) change the steam in high-pressure condensate (water). The pressure in the condensate is the same as in the working steam (i.e. 10 bar), hence its temperature is the same too (185°C). The condensate is drained from the appliances by means of steam separators that let the condensate go but retain the steam. However, the pressure after the separators is much lower than before them (10 bar, similar to the air pressure). The condensate (water) boiling temperature at 10 bar is 185°C but the temperature at atmospheric pressure is only 100°C. Thus, if the pressure drops from 10 bar to the air pressure, the condensate gets boiling, evaporating and then cooling. In these pressure conditions, some 10 % of the condensate weight evaporates so after the separators you have 90% of the (mass) condensate and 10 % of the steam, the pressure equals to the atmospheric pressure and the temperature is 100°C. This mixture of the condensate and the steam then goes on into open and ventilated collecting or supply tank, where the steam component (10 % of the mass) uselessly leaks in the air. The steam management with use of low-pressure steam (below) works in the same way with exception of the condensate separator. The only difference is that the mixture of the steam and the condensate is moved into a special device (expander), where the low-pressure steam is separated from the condensate. The low-pressure steam is then utilised. Normally, it is used for heating of the continuous batch washer or for heating and degasification of the cold water refilled in the boiler. The saving is seen in the fact that the low-pressure steam is used instead of the main steam, which is saved in this way. In practice, it is quite common that the low-pressure steam is able to cover a major part or even the whole consumption of the washing line. Steam management with use of the low-pressure steam by means of the expander
The company Procter&Gamble offers to the customers a solution for use of low-pressure steam. In addition, based on our rich experience, we offer consulting and solution even for other parts of the steam and condensate management (supply tanks, boilers vs. generators, condensate pumps, etc.) If the low-pressure steam is used and the steam and condensate management is optimised, the saving reach up to 10 or 30 % of the total costs of energy (depending on the basic state).
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
