Active pharmaceutical ingredients supplier Aesica is saving over £67,000 a year in energy costs at its Ponders End site following the installation of GEM steam traps
Purchased from Merck Sharp & Dohme in 2006, Aesica’s Ponders End site in North London is a hi-tech manufacturing facility with a capacity to produce 300 tons of products per year. It has potent compound and bulk manufacturing facilities producing Active Potent Ingredients for MSD products.
When Merck Sharp & Dohme recruited Phil Page as Utilities Engineer & Energy Manager, he was given special responsibility for saving energy. Having previously installed GEM steamtraps when employed at GlaxoSmithKline, he was aware of the energy savings that could be made using the patented venturi orifice design, so he had no hesitation in calling in GEM, a division of Thermal Energy International, to carry out a full survey of the steam system.
GEM’s report showed that approximately ten per cent of the steamtraps on the site were failing open, resulting in 8900 tonnes of steam being lost each year at a cost of £67,200. Not only was this increasing energy and maintenance costs, it was also reducing production time and having an environmental impact by creating 3000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.
By replacing the existing traps with the GEM venturi orifice design, blocked steam traps could be prevented from impacting on production and by efficiently returning condensate back to the boilers energy saving would be made. During the following 12-months, all 200 mechanical traps were replaced with appropriately sized GEM steam traps.
Energy reduction target
GEMs American headquarters had set the site an energy reduction target of 25 per cent over a three-year period. By installing the GEM steam traps, this target was achieved in less than 12 months. In fact such was the site’s accomplishment that a senior executive visited from the US to see how the energy savings had been achieved. Merck Sharp & Dohme is now considering the use of GEM traps at one of its US manufacturing plants prior to rolling out use of the traps throughout its world operation.
“Mechanical traps fail and this has an effect on production times and costs as well as energy, maintenance and the environment”, says Phil Page. “Fixed orifice steam traps do not fail open. Because of the success of the GEM steam traps, Aesica has now decided to complete those final areas not previously converted to GEM traps to benefit from additional energy savings."
Ultimate reliability
Instead of utilising a valve mechanism to close off steam for maximum energy and water conservation, the efficient GEM steam traps use the venturi orifice design to effectively drain condensate from the steam system. As the GEM units have no moving parts to wedge open or fail, it provides the ultimate in reliability necessitating only minimal maintenance and requiring no spares, testing or monitoring equipment.
Asked about blockages in the system, Page responded: “In the past two years we have only cleaned two traps after a site shutdown: this was due to debris left behind after installing new condensate pipe work. The only other problem was RE 800, which had to be re-sized after a reactor change. We are very pleased with the traps and have relaxed our PM to monitor the discharge temperature.”
Available in a wide range of sizes for a full cross section of applications, GEM steam traps are manufactured from corrosion-resistant stainless steel and are guaranteed for ten years, obviating the need for repair or replacement.
