Babcock Wanson has supplied a regenerative thermal oxidiser for poultry supplier Moy Park’s Grantham, Lincolnshire facility. The project involved the design, construction, erection and commissioning of the system – an odour abatement solution for the sites frying and oven based cooking processes.
Moy Park’s Grantham premises is a large further processing site for breaded and ready-to-eat produce featuring six production lines. Both frying and oven cooking methods are used at the site. The firm says rapid growth at this site in recent years has presented a need for improved odour abatement, especially important because of the site’s location close to the town centre.
After a detailed review with the site engineering team, Babcock Wanson recommended replacing the existing catalytic thermal oxidisers with a more effective regenerative thermal oxidiser capable of treating the complete cooking exhaust stream irrespective of the process heat load, an important feature in the fast moving food industry. The exhaust air from the cooking processes is fed through a heated matrix of specialist ceramic honeycombs. It enters the oxidiser at around 60°C and is heated to 850°C by the ceramics, with a small burner adding the final heat to get the stream to full oxidation temperature. The exhaust stream is treated by passing it through three towers which operate on a fixed rotation thereby ensuring a constant treatment profile. The clean, odour-free air is then released to the atmosphere.
Described by the firm as “an almost unique project in the food industry”, the installation has apparently proven to be very reliable with the bare minimum of maintenance or cleaning requirements to meet it’s ’round the clock’ duties. Installation was completed using much of the sites existing ductwork to help minimise disruption.
The new regenerative thermal oxidiser allows for up to 25,000 Nm3/h of cooking exhaust to be treated with the minimum of natural gas input. It is completely automatic which means production lines can be switched on or off to meet production requirements without having to make adjustments to the oxidiser settings. Furthermore Babcock Wanson has designed a secondary heat recovery system which will provide up to 200kW of hot water from the clean exhaust air, thereby increasing the overall efficiency of the system and reducing overall site gas demand.
This is the most recent work undertaken by Babcock Wanson for Moy Park. Previous projects have included the installation of thermal fluid heaters, which are used for high temperature process heating.
Babcock Wanson offers a complete range of products and services for boiler houses and other process heating needs, from steam boilers, thermal fluid heaters, rapid steam generators and hot water boilers to VOC and odour treatment by thermal oxidation, water treatment or process air heating solutions. The company aims to help optimise customer’s energy production with high quality products and efficient service.
For more information, please contact Babcock Wanson on 020 8953 7111 or info@babcock-wanson.co.uk or go to www.babcock-wanson.co.uk
