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Global tissue products company SCA is achieving savings following a blower-technology switch at the wastewater treatment plant serving its Oakenholt Mill in north Wales.
SCA had experienced reliability issues with the two existing lobe-type blowers at the 70-employee site near Flint, which produces tissues and paper towels. The units were used in the energy-intensive process of supplying aeration air to the wastewater treatment plant.
Aeration blowers can represent up to 70% of the electricity costs as a wastewater treatment plant due to the large quantities of air that needed to be blown into the aeration tanks.
In view of these requirements, SCA area engineering leader Paul Blundell selected Atlas Copco’s ZS+ range of oil-free positive displacement screw blower. These models are designed to be on average 30% more energy-efficient than conventional lobe-type, low-pressure alternatives.
The blower installed by SCA was a ZS37+ VSD-800 dry, oil-free rotary screw displacement blower unit – design incorporating precision timing gears. These maintain minute clearances between two intermeshing dry screw elements that never touch.
No lubrication is required in the compression space and special seals stop any rotor bearing oil from entering the compression chamber. Intake air is compressed between the rotors and their housing and oil-free, pulsation-free air at a pressure of 800mbar is delivered at an output rate of between 284 -947m3h.
The VSD version of the blower chosen by SCA was fitted with Atlas Copco’s Elektronikon operating system. This is designed to monitor overall system performance and increase efficiency and reliability by directly controlling the blower’s speed to the level of dissolved oxygen in the water.
According to Blundell, the blower has exceeded expectations in terms of energy savings and has run almost continuously for a year at 30-50% load. An Atlas Copco air network audit and survey system. he added, had made it possible to link the blower facility to the site’s building management system.
"This allows condition and service requirements to be fed directly to Atlas Copco’s service department either by mobile phone or via the internet,” said Blundell, who is now considering replacing the remaining lobe-type blower with another ZS+.
Teesside's chemicals/process manufacturing sector has attracted investment totalling £3.7 billion since 2005, the North East Polymer Industry Cluster (NEPIC) has estimated.
That amount has been invested by 83 companies in the north east of England region through the development of new facilities or the update of existing ones, according to a recent NEPIC study.
Despite the expansions, there was an 8% fall in the number of direct jobs at these companies to 9,257. This, said the study, reflected an increasing use of automation within the process sector and competitive pressures in the global commodity chemical sector.
Current investment in new technology industries should push employment back over the 10,000 mark within the next few years, said NEPIC – citing projects by companies including Air Products, SNF Oil & Gas, EPAX and Lotte Chemical UK.
Further employment is expected from projects supported by the Regional Growth Fund – such as those planned by AV Dawson, Nifco, Cleveland Potash, Huntsman Tioxide, Fine Industries, Davy Process, Tees Valley Biogas, Sirius, Chemoxy and further work by Lotte Chemical UK.
Air Fuels Synthesis and NET Power have also landed successful RFG bids in the latest round (four) and are moving to full approval for planned investment projects following a period of due diligence, the study also said.
Reviewing the findings, NEPIC CEO Dr Stan Higgins said Teesside’s chemical industry is mostly based on large scale commodity products, such as petrochemicals and polymers,
"In economic terms these are ageing industries and though they still bring new products to market, economic theory shows that as an industry sector gets older they attract more competition," he explained.
“Therefore to remain in the industry, companies must become more and more efficient in order to compete," said Higgins. "A commitment to continuous improvement and lean manufacturing techniques is essential and Teesside’s process companies have learnt how to do this, greatly helping with the retention and attraction of companies in our region."
A contract notice for work on the Thames Tideway Tunnel has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), Thames Water announced 29 July.
With a pre-qualification questionnaire for the three main construction works contracts now issued, Thames Water will be inviting shortlisted contractors to tender between November 2013 and April 2014. The preferred bidders will be announced in early 2015.
Work on the 'Supersewer' is due to start at 24 sites across London in 2015 subject to the project gaining a planning permit. The UK Planning Inspectorate is due to consider an application in September.
The scheme will be the biggest tunnelling project ever undertaken in the UK’s water industry. The network is intended to handle overflows from the capital’s Victorian sewers and protect the River Thames from increasing pollution for at least the next 100 years.
Construction is due to start at 24 sites across London in 2015, subject to the project gaining a planning permit. The UK Planning Inspectorate is due to consider an application in September.
Work will be split geographically into three main works construction contracts worth a total of around £1.6 billion – west (£300m - £500m), central (£600m - £950m) and east (£500m - £800m).
Work will be split geographically into three main works construction contracts worth a total of around £1.6 billion – west (£300m - £500m), central (£600m - £950m) and east (£500m - £800m), noted Thames Water.
The project requires contractors with the right expertise and experience, according Mike Gerrard, managing director of the Thames Tideway Tunnel.
“We are following a rigorous tender process to ensure the successful tenderers are capable of delivering the project,” he commented.
The project is expected to be financed and delivered by an independent Infrastructure Provider (IP), with its own licence from Ofwat.
Thames Water said it was working with the UK government and Ofwat to finalise the financing arrangements for the project. Procurement of the new IP is expected to begin in 2014 and is anticipated to take between six to nine months
Drax has unveiled the UK’s first purpose-built biomass rail freight wagon at the National Railway Museum in York.
Developed by designers at Lloyd’s Register Rail and manufactured by WH Davis, it is the largest ever produced and pushes the boundaries of rail engineering.
The wagon will transport biomass fuel from the Ports of Tyne, Hull and Immingham to Drax Power Station, near Selby.
At 18.9m long with top doors stretching 18.2m and bottom doors of 3.7m, the wagon has a capacity of 116 cubic metres allowing a biomass load weighing 71.6 tonnes. Its volume is said to be almost 30% bigger than any freight wagon currently used in the UK.
Explaining the need for supersize rail wagons, Peter Emery, Drax’s production director said: We need to keep the biomass dry, move more of it and speed up the process of delivery. The finished product is an industry-leading design and fulfils all the criteria we set.”
The design presented the engineers with challenges in achieving the increased wagon capacity within the limits of the Network Rail loading gauge. The wagon also features a unique door designs and a patented product flow control system to manage the biomass during discharge.
WH Davis met this design specification by working to a measurement tolerance of 5mm, the highest possible and half that normally associated with wagon manufacturing.
“This has been one of the most challenging fabrications we have undertaken," said Ian Whelpton, sales and marketing director of WH Davis. "By working with the wagon designers from the beginning, we have been able to manufacture the required innovations and achieve the significantly increased cubic capacity.”
Drax has ordered 200 wagons which have to ensure that the pelletised biomass is fully covered to remain dry and prevent spillage. The wagons are part of a circa £700-million investment that also includes boiler modifications and new biomass receipt, storage and handling facilities at Drax Power Station.
The power station’s first biomass converted generating unit began operating in April; a second will follow next year and a third by 2016 depending on securing contracts for sufficient biomass supplies. Each will burn approximately 2.3 million tonnes of sustainable biomass a year.
UK Power Networks has awarded electrical infrastructure contracts worth up to £26million over two years to upgrade networks which deliver power to thousands of customers.
Carillion, Costain and Electricity Network Solutions will refurbish and rebuild existing 33,000 and 132,000 volt power lines in the south east and east of England. New fibre optic cables will also be installed to send essential signals to equipment.
Working with project managers and surveyors at UK Power Networks, the contractors’ responsibilities will include design, feasibility and construction works involved in replacing electricity lines, increasing capacity and renewing components on steel pylons.
The contracts come into effect immediately, covering the two years up to the new RIIO-ED1 funding framework, starting in April 2015. UK Power Networks staff recently met the successful contractors in London to start planning the projects.
“Our aim is to deliver exceptional levels of performance in customer service, safety, quality and sustainability," said Nirmal Kotecha, director of capital programme. "We hope our suppliers will implement innovative ideas which fit in with our vision to be a respected corporate citizen, sustainably cost-efficient and an employer of choice.”
UK Power Networks is investing £360million this year to ensure its networks remain safe and reliable. It is responsible for operating 46,837km of overhead electricity network which brings power to millions of homes and businesses across the south east and east of England.
When evaluating the risk of an IT security breach in the process sector, it’s essential to comprehensively address the consequences, warns Peter Bassill of Hedgehog Security:
Last August, a cyber attack on Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil exporter, was traced to the ‘Shamoon’ virus that wiped out 30,000 computers at Aramco and erased data on the domain management servers at the heart of the corporate network.
The sabotage was said to have been perpetrated by at least one worker with access to the computer system.
Intelligence Online said the alleged Iranian network “had focused on Aramco's facilities, particularly the control systems of the Ghawar oil field and the Ras Tanura refinery,” the largest oil field and crude export refinery in the world.
Perhaps the most important thing that plant management can do to protect itself against the threat that such data breaches represent is change its attitude towards them. A security breach isn’t just another piece of data on a system.
Many companies seem to entirely fail to recognise the intrinsic value of an individual’s name, telephone number, address and password – and any other details they hold.
Part of the problem is that recognising the value of data takes time. There’s a resource cost associated with training people and putting in place good data handling procedures.
Good practice means that people have to spend more time actually handling data to ensure its integrity. Adopting a more appropriate attitude towards data is a continual process.
For example, it’s not uncommon for a PC controlling a process engineering cell to be running an old version of Windows, such as XP, without an internet connection.
Later in its life, the engineering department may decide it wants to connect some manufacturing cells to get production information out onto the IT network.
This can introduce vulnerability if the cells are managed by a PC with an old, un-updated version of Windows. Industrial network systems should be dealt with differently from IT networks in a business.
The most common way to estimate risk and produce a plan of action for countering that risk is penetration testing. This is a series of simulated attacks on a plant performed on behalf of the company by ethical ‘white hat’ hackers to evaluate its security.
One of the important things to understand about data security is that it’s not just an IT issue. However, if you create a phrase by putting any word in front of ‘information,’ most people will simply read ‘IT’ or ‘technology’.
In reality, 75% of plant security is about people and most security breaches aren’t the result of an IT process being lax. They are the result of human error caused by socially engineered attacks. These could be as simple as breaching a plant building by talking your way past the cleaners.
The key is to deliberately catch the target doing something stupid and take advantage of that.
As part of one penetration testing process, Hedgehog Security offered chocolate to a company’s staff in exchange for their intranet passwords, saying it was a test being imposed by management to see who had kept an accurate record. Nearly 10% of the people approached willingly passed on their data.
Similarly, one could set off a security alarm and stroll into a plant while everyone else was heading in the opposite direction or just walk in at any point wearing a high visibility jacket. Lunch or component delivery services are also ways to get into a plant.
Once inside a hacker could take countless routes into a network, from sitting down at a logged-in PC to installing a device between the phone line and a PC that monitors every call made and record every key stroke.
This kind of equipment can be bought on e-Bay for under £25 and the software needed to run it can be easily downloaded. Furthermore, industrial PCs are normally less secure than enterprise level IT networks!
One would not necessarily have to be that sophisticated though. Standing by a printer and picking up random prints can provide an intelligent hacker with all the information they need to attempt a serious attack.
Being aware of this problem is one of many ways of averting what could potentially be the biggest issue your plant now faces – industrial security.
Business optimism among UK food and drink manufacturers is now on a sustained upward track and driving new investment in the sector, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has reported.
Getting towards half (44%) of manufacturers responding to the FDF's Business Confidence Survey said they had increased capital expenditure in the second quarter of 2013. Investment in R&D and training also increased.
The sector, said the Federation, is being buoyed by a third successive quarter of increased optimism and an increase in the Annual Investment Allowance.
"Increased capital expenditure can in part be attributed to temporary changes to the Annual Investment Allowance, which offers tax relief on investments of up to £250,000," said Steve Barnes, FDF's economic and commercial services director.
The sector is also confident of sales growth in the third quarter – helped by the improved weather and a reviving economy.
Between April and June, UK sales grew in line with inflation, but 20% more businesses are expecting higher sales growth in the third quarter. Export sales are also expects to remain strong.
Confidence is being further supported by stable price and ingredient costs: 72% of the FDF's respondents expecting product prices to be broadly stable in third quarter due to summer promotions.
Dwr Cymru Welsh Water is employing new primary pumps to deal with heavy ragging and varying thicknesses of sludge at its WWTW serving the market town of Leominster in Herefordshire.
Two 5.5kW Borger MIP (maintenance-in-place) PL200 pumps have replaced old diaphragm units that had regularly tripped on high pressure and broke down. The problem caused causing lengthy maintenance and downtime.
Installed and commissioned by Borger, the new PL200 pumps have to deal with considerable ragging and unpredictable thicknesses of sludge at Leominster, explains Tony Nottage, Project Engineer for Dwr Cymru Welsh Water.
The pumps, he said, "cope well with the rags and sludge at Leominster, as well as reducing downtime with the Maintenance-In-Place design that makes servicing so much quicker and easier”.
Dwr Cymru Welsh Water has also worked with Borger to improve maintenance and operational procedures at its wastewater treatment works in Llanfoist near Abergavenny.
Börger role as main contractor included achieving drawing 4-6% sludge from four separate lagoons through more than 130 metres of pipework – without cavitation. This compare to suction lifts of just 2-3 metres in typical applications.
The UK's energy and climate change committee (ECC) has called for government action to address the burden of UK and EU legislation on the competitiveness of UK refineries. It also wants a more level playing field with European and global competitors.
In a report on UK oil refining, published 26 July, the ECC highlighted risks to the health of its refining industry and supportrd calls for a long-term framework to help secure its future
“The scale of legislative and regulatory burdens on the industry may undermine long-term sustainability," said the report. "DECC’s strategic objective should be to level the playing field between domestic refiners and importers, approaching these sectors as an integrated industry of two parts….”
Welcoming the report, Chris Hunt director general of UKPIA, commented: “The ECC’s inquiry and conclusions are timely and complement the ‘Call for Evidence’ from DECC on refining and the wider supply of fuels."
The DECC study will draw upon a report published in May by energy analysts Purvin &Gertz to assess the role and future of the oil refining industry and its value to the UK economy.
“We look forward to publication of DECC’s conclusions later this year," said Hunt, who also urged the Government to maintain its dialogue with the European Commission.
There is, he said, a need for an "urgent analysis in 2013 of all current and impending EU legislative impacts through the ‘Fitness Checks’ process being undertaken at the EU level via the Refining Forum.”
The UK’s oil refining industry supplies over 30% of the primary energy used by consumers in the UK and manufactures over 90% of the petroleum products sold in the UK.
UK oil refining capacity has declined from 18 refineries in the late 1970s to seven today. With two refineries having closed between 2009 and 2012, the loss of further UK refining capability may pose a risk to energy security of supply and resilience, by increasing dependence on imports.
A Deloitte report commissioned by DECC in 2010 concluded that UK refineries were facing increased pressure from a number of different sources, including increased competition from refineries in the Middle East and Asia, expected slow growth in demand and increasingly stringent environmental standards.
Many energy, oil & gas, nuclear, refinery and water companies are vulnerable to cyber attacks on their on-site wireless devices, a US information security firm has warned.
Indeed, the Seattle company IOActive Inc. will back these claims with a presentation of new research, during the annual Black Hat and DEF CON security conferences – to open at the end of July in Las Vegas.
The paper, titled Compromising Industrial Facilities From 40 Miles Away, will be presented by Lucas Apa, security researcher and Carlos Mario Penagos, security researcher at IOActive
At the event, the experts aim to demonstrate key distribution vulnerabilities in every wireless device developed over the past few years by three major industrial wireless automation suppliers, said IOActive.
The presentation on 1 Aug will also review the most commonly implemented key distribution schemes, their weaknesses, and how vendors can better align their designs with key distribution solutions.
The security company's statement, however, did not identify the automation vendors, whose equipment is to be referenced during the conferences.
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Chemicals and polymers giant Bayer is to establlsh a commercial-scale plant to produce CO2 as a feedstock for the manufacture of polyurethane foam.
The company has already started the planning process for the facility at its site in Dormagen, Germany, where CO2 and aims to supply the precursor to selected processors from 2015.
Polymers business unit Bayer MaterialScience has collaborated with partners from industry and academia to develop the process, which has been in test phase for the last two years.
As part of the publicly funded research project “Dream Production”, a pilot plant at Bayer’s main site in Leverkusen produced smaller quantities of the precursor polyol, in which the CO2 is chemically bound.
“After successfully completing the test phase, we are now launching Stage 2 with the target of commercialisation,” said ,” says Patrick Thomas, CEO of Bayer MaterialScience.
The first use of the new CO2-based flexible foam will be for the production of mattresses, said Bayer, noting that
the planned production facility in Dormagen will have a capacity of several thousand tonnes.
“This will not be enough to accommodate the market demand, of course," said Thomas. "It is Bayer’s patent-registered technology and we have not yet decided to be the exclusive producer of this innovative polyol. Licensing might also be a possibility."
(Image source: Bayer)
While utilities are building up huge volumes of smart grid data mpst are failing to turn this information into business value, according to a new study by Oracle.
The study, titled Utilities and Big Data: Accelerating the Drive to Value, found utilities increasingly prepared for the smart grid data influx compared to last year – but still struggling to fully leverage the data collected.
"Significant potential still exists to use this information to drive customer service and operational improvements for business value," said the report, which focused on the North America utilities sector.
Utilities also report slight improvements in information sharing and using information for strategic decision-making, though most remain underprepared.
Likewise, while two out of three utilities are considering cloud-based solutions for smart grid/smart meter data management and analysis. Only 26%, however, are actually planning, implementing or maintaining a cloud solution today.
But the penny does appears to be dropping as 70% of utilities expected predictive analytics to improve revenue protection and 61% expect it to reduce asset maintenance costs.
“While more utilities today, over last year, are completely prepared to handle the big data influx from smart grid, most still struggle to get business value from the information they collect," said Rodger Smith, senior VP and general manager, Oracle Utilities.
"The most progressive utilities are transforming themselves now into data-driven businesses to accelerate the opportunities big data and analytics can bring to improving customer service and operational efficiencies,” he added.
Two Sisters Food Group has signed a licensing deal with Premier Foods plc for the production, distribution, sales and marketing of its Hovis Breakfast Bakes range of breakfast biscuits.
The agreement will run for an initial period of five years from 1 August 2013 and is in line with moves at 2 Sisters Food to diversify within new food categories.
The three variants of Hovis Breakfast Bakes; Malted Crunch; Oats & Honey; and Milk & Oats; will be manufactured at the Fox’s Biscuits plant in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. The licensing agreement also provides for other healthier biscuit options to be developed under the Hovis brand in the future.
The £77.8 million breakfast biscuit market represents the fastest growing segment of the healthier biscuits category, itself growing at 8% annually, according to 2 Sisters Food.
"By combining the strong heritage and health credentials of the Hovis brand together with the biscuits expertise of Fox’s Biscuits, both companies foresee opportunities to target a genuine need among busy consumers to provide a healthier biscuit alternative and grow the category further," the company said.
“This licensing agreement is an excellent way for us to extend the Hovis brand into adjacent categories, explained Simon Devereux, business unit director of Premier Foods’ bread division.
"By working with 2 Sisters Food Group and Fox’s Biscuits, we have a partner with the biscuits expertise necessary to take full advantage of the market opportunities,” Devereux added.
Pressure from industry watchdog the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) seems to be paying off – as evidenced by news from water companies, who had exceeded regulator Ofwat’s profit assumptions by around 30% in the last two years.
Of this bonanza, at least £600 million was due to the benefits that companies get when inflation is high and interest rates are low, noted CCWater, which wants much this cash to go into improving services for customers.
Water bills have been rising and so have water company profits, argued CCWater, as it challenged water companies to share their "unexpected profits" of the past three years with their customers as well as shareholders.
“Whilst profits are good because they allow investment, there needs to be a better balance between shareholders and customers, and customers want to know what their money is being spent on,” said Tony Smith, chief executive of the CC Water.
Since this statement went out in May, there has been a steady flow of investment news within the annual financial results coming out from water and wastewater companies around the UK.
Among them, United Utilities announced that it had listened to its customers in the north west of England and would be making £200m worth of extra investment.
Elsewhere, Wessex Water has decided to invest an extra £50million, including £30million to improve drains and sewers in £6.5million in online services.
Meanwhile, Yorkshire Water has pledged £114 million in schemes including reducing supply interruptions, replacing mains and upgrading sewage treatment works.
CCWater also praised Severn Trent Water for reaffirming a pledge to invest an additional £150million in its water and sewerage networks. The extra investment will be spent over three years to reduce leakage and supply interruptions, improve sewers and upgrade treatment works.