Industry
Meat Processing
Location
Canada
Solution
FLU-ACE™ & PERCO-ACE™
The largest chicken processing company in the region operates a large-scale cogeneration plant that has been continuously upgraded as part of a phased project initiated in the late 1990s. This system supplies approximately 50% of the facility’s electricity needs and provides steam and hot water required for processing. Our advanced technologies play a vital role in significantly boosting heat recovery, enhancing energy efficiency, and supporting the facility’s sustainability ambitions.
Crucially, they enabled the full decommissioning of the ageing boiler room, with proven performance through successive upgrades over many years, demonstrating exceptional reliability and longevity. These improvements have helped ensure the production process remains reliable and consistent, safeguarding the company’s commitment to consumers to deliver the best quality chicken products at competitive prices
Challenge
In the late 1990s, the facility’s production demanded significantvolumes of hot water and steam to support twice-daily processing shifts and nightly cleaning. Approximately 2.3 million litres of hot water were required daily, heated to around 49°C for production and up to 60°C for sanitation.
Hot water was generated using a complex mix of ageing equipment, including a direct-contact water heater, a 400 kW heat pump, and five boilers up to 15 years old. This fragmented system struggled to meet the facility’s performance and efficiency targets.
Faced with increasing regulatory pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operational inefficiencies, the customer sought a sustainable, reliable solution to replace the outdated boilers and optimise energy use.
The result was a cogeneration system that supplies approximately 50% of the facility’s electricity needs and provides a foundation for on-site steam generation, but it was not sufficient on its own to achieve the desired reductions in fuel consumption and emissions, or meet the growing demand for hot water.
Phased Heat Recovery Enabling Boiler Decommissioning
A proprietary direct contact heat recovery system was installed on the exhaust of the 5 MW turbine cogeneration system to recover approximately 75% of the lost flue gas energy.
This system heated more than 1,300 litres of sanitation water to 49°C, recovering more than 4 MW of heat from flue gases, thereby reducing energy waste and lowering carbon emissions. The payback period for this initial installation was less than one year.
Several years later, the system was upgraded to meet increased hot water demands and recover the remaining 25% of the lost flue gases. This enhancement increased heat recovery by more than 1 MW while maintaining the original design and avoiding any increase in system backpressure.
Heat sink capacity increased to more than 2,200 litres of sanitation water heated to a maximum of 43°C. The payback period for this upgrade was less than six months.
The final enhancements to decommission the old boiler room were made after nearly two decades of phased development and upgrades. The installation of three new PERCO-ACE units (gas-fired direct-contact water heaters), with a combined heating capacity of approximately 22 MW, completed the sanitation water heating system.
Supported by advanced operational controls optimising burner output, airflow, and temperature setpoints, this system efficiently meets the facility’s increased hot water demand.
Together, these improvements enabled the customer to fully shut down their ageing boilers while maintaining reliable and efficient operations.
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