Tensar benefits from Maxsys fuel treatment system

Maxsys has installed a magnetic fuel treatment system in one of Tensar Manufacturing's gas-fired, steam-raising boilers.

Tensar Manufacturing, part of the Tensar Group, is a provider of soil reinforcement and ground stabilisation solutions.

The project has cut gas consumption by 5.78 per cent, offering considerable financial savings, and extensive analysis has also revealed that boiler efficiency has improved by 5.46 per cent.

The Thomas Cochran steam-raising boiler at Blackburn-based Tensar International, whose products serve the infrastructure, housing, commercial and industrial sectors, is rated at 3,000kg/h and operates at 6.5bar/g.

Natural gas is processed as the primary fuel source by a 2,836kW Dunphy burner.

The system runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is backed up by a Wee Chieftain 3,750kg/h-rated boiler that is kept on hot standby.

Beginning in late 2007, Tensar staff recorded a 30-week set of pre-installation data that included boiler-house gas consumption, boiler-house steam generation and individual boiler feed water.

The same parameters were then re-measured for a six-week period following the installation in June 2008 of a Maxsys fuel system to the Dunphy burner.

Joe Crane, Tensar's chief engineer, said: 'Using the Cusum data-analysis technique, we recorded an overall reduction in gas usage of 5.78 per cent.

'What's more, this saving appeared immediately after fitting, hence bedding-in time was minimal and the figures look to be improving as time goes on,' he added.

While this offers Tensar a financial saving in an era of record-high gas prices, boiler efficiency (steam-gas ratio) has also been seen to improve.

The average ratio recorded in the pre-installation dataset was 2.718lb of steam generated per kilowatt hour (kWh) of gas consumed.

Post installation, this figure had increased to 2.867lb/kWh, representing 5.46 per cent more steam generated for the same amount of gas consumed (or less gas consumed for the same amount of steam produced).

The production process for geo-grid and geo-textile technology is said to be very efficient, with almost all waste material reincorporated into the production process.

The company's products are used within construction projects, for example, providing solutions to grade changes requiring retaining walls or slopes and for improving soil conditions.

Tensar's technology is intended to help civil-engineering projects to be more cost effective and resource efficient as it reduces the amount of aggregate required.

Crane said: 'Maxsys fuel technology has been instrumental in driving down our gas consumption, increasing boiler efficiency and cutting our carbon emissions.

'We predict to save GBP10,000 per annum on fuel, which will ensure a speedy return on investment.

'We have also managed to eliminate 109 tonnes of carbon emissions from our overall carbon footprint,' he added.

The introduction of the fuel system is part of a wider company initiative that has seen all Tensar staff at the Blackburn facility given full energy awareness training in order to ensure that the environmental impact of the company is kept to a minimum.

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