By installing a Maxsys boiler fuel system, global chemical manufacturer Dow has reduced CO2 emissions at its Norfolk plant -- and cut its annual fuel consumption by over five per cent
Dow Chemical Company first came to King's Lynn in 1957 when a joint venture (Dow Agrochemicals) was formed with an existing company. Today, the 75 acre site runs three manufacturing plants: building materials (fabricated products such as Styrofoam); emulsion polymers (Dow latex) and insecticides and fungicides (crop protection products such as Dursban). Producing process steam to help manufacture these products is the main site boiler, a duel-fuel Blohm & Voss model. Predominantly run on natural gas, the company recently became concerned about the escalating price of energy – gas prices have climbed approximately 50 per cent in the past 12 months alone.
“It’s not as though we had only just noticed,” explains Andrew Culshaw, Maintenance Leader at the King’s Lynn facility. “In fact we had already taken steps to minimise gas consumption, such as fitting economisers and fuel efficiency trims. To be honest I felt we had done as much as we could until I saw a flyer in a magazine promoting the Maxsys Fuel System. I was immediately intrigued. I’d not seen or heard of anything like it before.”
He added: “The technology appeared to be well established. We knew that if we could achieve a yearly gas consumption saving of 5 per cent, financially it would equate to thousands. We couldn’t go wrong.”
Towards the end of 2007 the Fuel System was fitted to the Blohm & Voss boiler . The technology is a patented fuel treatment system that improves combustion by applying a finely calibrated magnetic field directly to the fuel. There are no moving parts and the units are maintenance-free. A series of fuel meter readings collected before and after fitting confirmed that average gas consumption at the King’s Lynn boiler site was 5.2 per cent lower following the installation of the Maxsys system.
“Emissions to atmosphere are a growing concern and we know these can be reduced by reducing our gas usage," says Culshaw. "The emissions we produce are monitored both internally from a Dow corporate perspective, and externally – King’s Lynn is an IPCC-regulated site. We couldn’t be more pleased with the impact created by the Maxsys Fuel System, both on our overheads and our social and industry-wide responsibility.”
