Babcock Wanson worked closely with Bakkavor to develop a solution to meet its combined heat and odour abatement requirements. The result is the installation of two COMBI 4000 Recuperative Thermal Oxidisers and a Thermal Fluid Heater with the complete system designed and commissioned by Babcock Wanson.
Exhaust Gas from the frying process can be unpleasant to smell and needs to be treated. For Bakkavor Meals London, whose processing facilities are located in a densely populated urban area, removing the odour is essential and something the company takes very seriously. The most effective method to achieve this is thermal oxidation. Pollutant gases are heated to high temperatures – 850°C in this instance – in a combustion chamber and are fully oxidised before being discharged to atmosphere as a harmless gas. Each Oxidiser burns up to 4000 kg/h of fryer exhaust and in doing so recover valuable heat to thermal fluid to heat the production line thereby recycling the energy back to the process.
The recovered heat is also used to produce steam for processing needs and to heat washdown water therefore helping to meet the sites total demand in an efficient manner. The Thermal Fluid Heater supply to the heat the fryers is automatically adjusted to suit the process through the use of software specifically developed for this process, thereby ensuring the product quality demanded by Bakkavor is met without any problems.
Loucas Antoniou, Engineering Manager at Bakkavor Meals London, comments on the system: “The Thermal Oxidiser is the most efficient way of removing any smells and it’s also very straightforward to use. We have been a customer of Babcock Wanson for many years and have always enjoyed a good service.”
In addition to COMBI 4000 recuperative Thermal Oxidisers Babcock Wanson also fitted a TBC600B Thermal Fluid Heater as top up to meet the peak process demand and a backup system.