Steam Generation for Plastic Recycling
J&A Young’s first food-grade PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) recycling plant, with the ability to handle up to 30,000 tonnes of PET plastic bottles per annum, requires considerable amounts of steam to heat water as part of the recycling process. PET is used extensively for the production of bottles and other containers for the food industry so the need for an efficient re-cycling process has never been greater.
When looking at the options for generating steam, J&A Young Engineering Manager Jason Hall approached four companies but chose Babcock Wanson as they gave him the most confidence in their knowledge and skills. “We had estimated our steam requirements,” states Jason, “but Babcock Wanson had the experience to understand that we had underestimated this. In fact, the erratic nature of the steam loads would have been impossible to meet under our existing spec. Babcock Wanson was able to identify this as well as provide a very energy efficient solution with a number of enhanced features”.
ESM4000 Steam Generator
Babcock Wanson recommended its ESM4000 steam generator complete with exhaust gas recuperator for the feed water system plus an additional heat exchanger between the hot well and the feed pumps to further improve overall efficiency. A coil type steam generator, the ESM provides operating efficiencies of circa 96-97% overall and low emissions. It utilises modern controls to maintain a close ratio between the burner firing rate and water input with inverter drive of both the combustion air and feed water pumps. This ensures close control of both steam output and steam quality and lowest practicable consumption of electrical power.
The benefits of using high efficiency steam generators not only include energy consumption and carbon emissions but also improved safety (the chance of a pressurised water explosion is virtually eliminated), simplicity of control, compact size (they take about half the footprint of the previous fire tube boilers) and they are considerably quieter, cleaner and cooler in operation, making the boiler house a far nicer environment in which to work.
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