SAVE ENERGY, WATER AND COSTS BY OPTIMISING YOUR FLUID HANDLING EQUIPMENT – WITH ITS…

With the cost of living hitting us all hard, inflation spiralling to levels not seen in decades and businesses already trying to make up for lost income from a tumultuous few years of trading – we are all looking for ways to save the pennies, become more efficient and still reach those ever demanding sustainability goals.

Now more than ever, businesses are realising that investing at the front end will pay back dividends over the coming years, when it comes to resource and equipment – but these decisions are not taken lightly and the outlay needs to be for the right reasons and amply justified.

Challenges for Processing Plants

In these unprecedented times, food and beverage processing plants are operating in ever increasing competitive conditions, and the search for ways in which to stay profitable without compromising product quality is a real challenge.

The food processing industry is the largest single manufacturing sector in the UK and the fourth largest industrial energy user, with a whopping 117 petajoules (PJ) consumed each year (according to the food and drink federation 2018 & the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy 2018a). This is largely due to the thermal / refrigeration processes and water used in their operations, plus the hygienic standards and cleaning requirements significantly impacting the intensive energy utilisation. Energy is also often wasted through inefficient processes or equipment, and understanding where improvements could be made is the first step to sustainable practices.

Source – Mapping energy consumption in food manufacturing – ScienceDirect

How can we help you understand the needs of your business support you change for the better?

Using Joules Sustainability Optimisation software, ITS can calculate energy & CO2 emission savings by optimising your pumps and agitators, and CIP media and water savings for mixproof valves and tank cleaning equipment. With the given duty specification, we can provide the best energy & water solutions for inefficient sanitary flow processes!

What we do?

An analysis of components in an existing process to identify potential water and energy savings, by either installing better suited components or finding a superior process solution.

Why we do it?

Analysing the various operational processes of your business allows you to more accurately assess them against sustainable best practice and identify what opportunities are available and what changes you would like to make, whether big or small.

Who can do it?

Sustainability Audits are about understanding where you are now so that you can plan for a more sustainable future and therefore they are suitable for all business that have processes that can be improved upon.

Processing Plants can use ITS expertise in this field to determine where improvements can be made.

Our Service:

  • Flow charts, product data and scheduled operation times provided at planning call
  • Audit estimated at one full working week for the involved persons
  • Calculations and report generation
  • Presentation and conclusion

Our Commitment:

To provide our industry leading sustainability audit, full involvement from our end and the end user operator is required. We will liaise with a process responsible end user representative to make sure the suggested changes are feasible.

Process Optimisation

Investing in process optimisation, whether through energy efficient technologies or manufacturing behavioural changes, are some of the ways in which facilities can reduce energy consumption and production costs, whilst maintaining the quality and integrity of their produce.

Change your Pumps…

If we look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a typical pump, you will see that only 7% of the total cost of ownership is coming from the purchase and installation costs.

By far the biggest contributor to total cost of ownership is pump energy. 85% of the money you are paying for operating the pump over its lifetime is consumed by energy costs.

LKH Centrifugal Pumps:

Energy Efficient LKH Centrifugal Pumps Designed for energy efficiency the LKH Centrifugal pump range has been optimised to maximise the energy you input into pumping fluids. This premium energy efficient pump can provide up to 50% greater energy efficiencies compared to similar sized mid-range pumps. With a greater efficiency pump the running costs are reduced from lower energy consumption and less energy is wasted to vibrations, noise and heat leading to less impact on the product quality and less frequent breakdowns. Read here how LKH pumps helped a large dairy facility to reduce energy costs, downtime and emissions Alfa Laval LKH pumps reduce energy costs, downtime and emissions | Alfa Laval

Product Recovery with H-Flo Eccentric Disc Pump:

These pumps have been designed to provide premium performance. They feature a unique seal-less design with a double stainless-steel bellows that ensures durability, safety and product containment. The H-FLO pump delivers high suction vacuum and high discharge pressure that allow it to self-prime and fully strip lines, a critical consideration when maximising product recovery. With increased product recovery you will increase product yields and profits but also reduce waste sent to drain and reduce the amount of CIP needed to clean saving on energy and water costs. Some hygienic pump ranges also provide other benefits including less vibration, noise, and heat generation which all aid to increase the mean-time between failure of the equipment and Total Cost of Ownership.

Heat it with less energy consumed:

Plate heat exchangers are designed to optimise heat transfer because the corrugated plates provide by far the greatest surface area through which the heat can be drawn from one gas or liquid to the other. Despite this substantial area for heat transfer, plate heat exchangers are usually relatively compact. The design of the plate channels also ensures maximum turbulence as each fluid passes through. This results in maximum efficiency in transferring heat from one medium to the other. These heat exchangers includes a range with a new design – namely CurveFlow. The distribution area on these plates means superior flow distribution and more of the available pressure drop over the main heat transfer area. This results in a number of benefits:

  • Increased energy efficiency – Up to 15% higher efficiency
  • Higher flow capacity
  • Up to 40% improvement in self-cleaning capability
  • A more compact heat exchanger – less plates needed
  • Reduced maintenance costs.

The high efficiency and outstanding reliability in a compact design, offers an investment with the most attractive TCO over the product life time. Not to forget the energy saving capabilities and low environmental footprint. These completely redeveloped heat exchangers are setting new standards in energy efficiencies, reliability and serviceability, with unique innovations to maximise productivity and lower life cycle costs.

Increase yield whilst reducing energy consumption with a pigging solution:

The purpose of pigging is to remove or recover residual liquid that remains in a pipe after transfer from one location to another. A pigging system consists of a flexible projectile with a diameter marginally larger than the pipeline that needs pigging. Water, other liquid, compressed air or gas, or even the product being processed is then used to propel the pig through the pipe and remove or recover the remaining product and increase yield of product per operating cycle!

Features & Benefits:

  • High Return on Investment
  • Reduced waste and less production downtime
  • Increased yields leading to better margins
  • Lower water consumptions and more sustainable
  • Reduce Cleaning times as they don’t need to run as long
  • Reduce chemical usage

 This doesn’t even include the additional savings from waste handling/disposal costs, changeover time labour costs, cleaning fluid, energy and water costs!

Increase energy savings by including next generation agitators:

With the EnSaFoil Impeller, these agistiators offer up to 400% greater efficiencies. Even flow rates across the impeller compared to standard pitched impellers, minimise input from the drive unit. The result is reduction of power consumption by up to 80% from the agitator alone.

Tank Cleaning at its best…

TJ20G & TJ40G Rotary Jet Heads:

These tank-cleaning devices provide exceptional cleanability, better end-product quality, greater overall output and up to 70% reduction in operating costs compared to static spray-ball technology. The strong targeted jets provide greater cleaning force and reduce cleaning cycle times and therefore reduces water and chemical consumptions. They are designed for hygienic applications, such as food, dairy, personal care and beverages. High impact quality assured cleaning in smaller tanks.

Orbitor Eco. This Rotary Jet Head:

This is a new breed of impingement tank cleaners designed to vastly improve water usage and time efficiency. Unlike conventional impingement cleaners that have been geared for power, this tank cleaning head has been geared to produce a very fast cleaning cycle that uses very little water. Up to 95% water saving when compared to static spray balls & up to 75% water saving when compared to rotary spray balls.

PlusClean for shadow areas:

A Cleaning nozzle that revolutionises tank cleaning in your hygienic processes. Paired with your top-mounted tank cleaning device, the PlusClean smoothly integrates into the tank wall or bottom. When activated during Cleaning-in-Place (CIP), it hits shadow areas with a fan of pressurised cleaning media, guaranteeing 100% impact cleaning coverage, up to 80% savings in water and cleaning agent costs, and 0% contaminants.

Use Reliable, Efficient Valves and Automation to control the flow:

When used with the new Alfa Laval ThinkTop V50 & V70 Automation Range with the Burst Clean and Pulse Clean technologies, trials have revealed that up to 95% of the CIP sent to drain during cleaning can be saved with our valves- significantly lowering operating and waste management costs compared to using traditional (PLC) timer-controlled valve actuations.

Pulse Clean:

Typically drain valves will comprise up to 20% of all valves within a processing plant. Cleaning them is costly, difficult and time consuming due to the long cleaning cycles needed to remove product or debris and due to risk of pressure shocks. With our “Pulse Clean” technology we can address these issues quickly and effectively by providing a spotless clean to the equipment while delivering savings of up to 95% of the Cleaning-in-place (CIP) liquid that would traditionally be used. Instead of the drain valves opening on a PLC timer, technology within the ThinkTop Control head pulses the valve open and closed multiple times to generate turbulent flow for cleaning whilst minimising fluids sent to drain without compromise to cleanability.

Burst Clean – With Double seat mixproof valves:

The typical cleaning regime requires the seats to be independently lifted for 5 or more seconds at multiple times for each part of the cleaning process cycle. The PLC timer typically cannot be shortened below 5 seconds as it needs to be open for long enough that the PLC catches the signal feedback from the control head. With the “Burst Clean” feature of the ThinkTop V70 Control head the programming is already set within the unit so that it opens in small 1 second bursts maintaining turbulent jetting to provide full cleanability whilst minimising CIP fluids sent to drain. When mounted on our Alfa Laval Mixproof valves trials have shown that up to 90% of CIP liquids can be saved when the “Burst Clean” feature is used.

IBC’s account for around 15% of the global packaging market and due to their high operational performance and cost efficiency for both transport and storage of oil, chemical, food/beverages & pharmaceuticals have an annual growth rate of around 9.5% (Cat Pumps) n.d. . IBC totes are typically 818-2500 litre capacity and therefore take a significant amount of water and energy to clean for re-use.

The ITSClean Range:

There are several types of IBC washing machines that range from simple drop-in equipment to stationary machines. The ITSClean Range offers options for all budgets and needs. COMING SOON!

Look at the potential results of using the ITSClean range…

  • Make it possible to bring the entire cleaning process in-house, completely eliminating third-party costs.
  • Cleaning of IBC’s between 25-50 times faster than doing it manually.
  • Cleaning time pre-set which allows labour to concentrate on other tasks.
  • Cleaning time reduced to 4 – 8 minutes depending on amount & type of residue.
  • Our IBC wash-station is proven to save time, water and money.

Contact ITS to find out more about our IBC cleaners or to discuss any of the other products / services we have on offer that can support your facility to save energy, water, time and money!