Cheese maker cuts fuel consumption

Walsall, UK - The UK’s largest dairy farming co-operative First Milk Cheese Co. has cut  fuel consumption by 7.5% with the installation of new energy saving systems on the three oil-fired, steam-raising boilers at its Haverfordwest creamery.

First Milk's  £500-million turnover business has three operating divisions: Milk, Cheese and Ingredients and is the largest UK-based cheese supplier with a 35% share of the Cheddar market. The Haverfordwest creamery manufactures over 20,000 tonnes of cheese for a number of major retail customers in addition to 35,000 tonnes of whey products.

“We are always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of our operations,” explains Paul Rowe, general manager at the creamery. “With ever increasing energy costs to satisfy the demand for process steam we looked at installing fuel saving technology at the site.”

Following a site survey by Maxsys and subsequent receipt of a proposal, the company looked at the advantages of fitting the company's Fuel+TM energy saving systems to its three heavy fuel oil fired steam-raising boilers at Haverfordwest.

“We looked at the proposal from Maxsys in further detail, and following visits to a number of existing Maxsys users it became apparent that other companies were seeing major benefits. Additionally, the 5% independently verified savings guarantee played a major part in our decision to move forward with the project,” said Rowe.

The Haverfordwest creamery houses oneRuston Thermax boilers (rated at 25,000lb/hr) and two fully packaged Byworth YSZ11250 boilers (rated at 25,000lb/hr). All three are fired on heavy fuel oil. The plant operates 24/7 with all of the boilers on-line to cover periods of high demand. Maxsys supplied and fitted three bespoke Fuel+TM systems to each of the boilers.

Fuel metering was already in place but water meters required installing prior to the project commencing.
ABB, acting as the independent verifiers, produced a test protocol for the assessment of the boiler plant performance with and without Fuel+TM technology in place. The protocol was agreed and signed off by First Milk, ABB and Maxsys, and formed the basis of the 5% guarantee.

Fuel meter readings were gathered three times a day by First Milk for the duration of the project. ABB based their evaluation on the established CUSUM statistical model with regenerative analysis. The results identified that average oil consumption was 7.5% lower than predicted when the Fuel+TM systems were installed.

“The project was put together on the basis that it would provide a significant return on the capital invested and in fact the project paid back in just under a year. Maxsys guaranteed that First Milk would save a minimum of 5% on our fuel spend, so naturally we are delighted with the actual result of 7.5% and it fully justifies the decision we made to ask Maxsys to work with us," said Rowe.

"The dairy industry is extremely competitive and it’s crucial that we invest in the latest technology to maintain our leading position. First Milk are also clearly leading the way with investments to reduce energy and CO2 emissions. We have our own environmental targets to meet and this project has provided a significant boost,” he added.