Benz Air Engineering Engineering Steam Efficiency - Case study

The following is a case study of a tomato processing plant located in Woodland, California. The facility produces canned tomato products. The steam boiler plant provides steam for process loads. The boiler plant contains five high-pressure steam boilers. Our case study is the retrofit for Boiler #6, Trane-Murray, water-tube boiler of 150,000 lb. per hour rated capacity (capacity is limited to less than 100,000 lb. per hour before the retrofit); 150 psig steam, currently operating at 82.1% boiler efficiency.

Boiler # 6 - Canning Tomato’s

The following equipment was identified to optimize boiler efficiency through a comprehensive boiler plant retrofit. Boiler plant optimization takes into consideration the processes involved when evaluating steam load and heat recovery options. The energy efficiency measures for Boiler #6 were:

1. Boiler Plant Feed-water Heat Recovery & De-aerator Control Upgrades
2. Steam Turbine to Electric Feed-water Pump Conversion with a VFD, to eliminate steam venting
3. Combustion Air Inlet Pre-heater, Low Excess Air Burner with Parallel Positioning Control & Fan VFD, and SCR NOx Emissions Control