Hans Kissle Foods
Reducing operating costs & environmental impact
The Challenge
Hans Kissle Foods embarked on a mission to reduce operating costs and reduce environmental impact at their Haverhill, MA facility in 2022. Along with the installation of a condensing waste heat recovery system, they installed Green Box Telemetrix removable insulating covers with wireless temperature sensing on all of their steam traps in the boiler room and steam distribution piping.
The Solution
Not only were all of the existing traps un-insulated, but immediately after installing green box, it was discovered that many of the existing mechanical traps were passing live steam into the condensate return system. A plume of steam could always be seen from the rooftop vent.
Trap failures were evident since the condensate return system is at just over ambient pressure which should result in +/-200F condensate out of each trap. This was not what was observed in many cases where condensate temperatures rose well above 250F and followed the steam side temperatures indicating a failed trap leaking live steam into the condensate return system.
The Green Box system provided insight into which traps were operating properly by holding back steam in the system and allowing liquid condensate to be removed and returned to the boiler room. The traps indicating blow through were removed and replaced with new traps resulting in the elimination of steam blow through, as indicated by the reduced condensate temperature.
Not evident, but implied by the high condensate temperature readings is the fact that the condensate system was being over pressurized causing back up of condensate throughout the system leading to inefficiencies of heat exchangers and a domino effect on other working traps in the system.
Plant maintenance can now observe instantaneous operation of the steam system and look at historical temperatures to determine the overall health of the traps in the system. After a period of baseline readings, alarms will be set up to text or email maintenance providing them with an indication of a failing trap including time and location. Annual steam surveys providing only a snapshot of system health are no longer necessary with vastly improved insight into the system on a continuous basis.
By insulating each trap, the customer can also expect 80% less energy loss over un-insulated traps.
Hans Kissle Foods
LOCATION: Haverhill, MA
INDUSTRY: Food manufacturing
Get in touch.
Find out if Green Box Telemetrix is right for you.
Follow us on Social