Pharma firm traps big energy savings

London -- Aesica, a supplier of active ingredients to the global pharmaceuticals industry, is saving over £67,000 a year in energy costs following the installation of steam traps at its Ponders End site in North London.

The process operation achieved a 28% energy saving in just 12 months following the installation of GEM steam traps from Gardner Energy Management. Some 200 of the units were installed across the facility, which was purchased from Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) last October.

The plant has a capacity to produce 300 tonnes of products per year and includes potent compound and bulk manufacturing facilities producing active potent ingredients for MSD products.

The plant’s utilities engineer & energy manager Phil Page had previously installed GEM steamtraps when employed at GlaxoSmithKline. He called in Gardner Energy Management to carry out a full survey of the steam system. This found that around 10% of the steamtraps on the site were failing open, resulting in 8,900 tonnes of steam being lost each year at a cost of £67,200.

The problem was increasing energy and maintenance costs and reducing production time and having an environmental impact by creating 3000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, said Gardner Energy Management.

GEM steam straps feature a patented venturi orifice, which prevents blocked steam traps from impacting on production and saves energy by efficiently returning condensate back to the boilers.

Instead of utilising a valve mechanism to close off steam, the venturi orifice design effectively drains condensate from the steam system, explains Gardner Energy Management. The GEM steam traps have no moving parts and so require only minimal maintenance and avoid the need for spares, testing or monitoring equipment, claims the supplier.

“Mechanical traps fail and this has an effect on production times and costs as well as energy, maintenance and the environment”, said Page. “Aesica has now decided to complete those final areas not previously converted to GEM traps to benefit from additional energy savings”.

“In the past 2 years we have only cleaned 2 traps after a site shutdown this was due to debris left behind after installing new condensate pipe work,” said Page. The only other problem was RE 800, which had to be re-sized after a reactor.”