This audit identified several projects which could reduce the site carbon emissions through improving the thermal generation efficiency of the plant.
The plant had two oversized steam boilers installed operating on Heavy Fuel Oil. These boilers were not efficient by modern standards and produced emissions which are harmful to the environment. The plant also had available a free source of heat from the milk evaporator. The project involved firstly recovering heat from the evaporator condenser to boiler feedwater & CIP. Then designing a feedwater system where the waste heat from the steam generation could be used to reduce the parasitic steam used in the Deaerator. These measures reduced the steam demand onsite.
With the reduced steam demand, it was possible to upgrade the burners to smaller units that operated on Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). These smaller burners were more efficient and the new fuel lower costs & cleaner burning which eliminated the majority of harmful emissions from HFO. The boiler upgrades involved the installation of a boiler feedwater economizer, 2 stage flue gas economizers and upgrade of controls and ancillary components to best available technologies.
