British Sugar targets flow control at UK's first bioethanol plant

Wissington, UK - British Sugar is employing Tyco Flow Control valve and control packages with Foundation Fieldbus and AS-Interface compatible valve controls in hazardous areas of its bioethanol production plant at Wissington, near King’s Lynn, UK. Over 300 valves controlled by Tyco intelligent network devices have been installed at the plant, which was officially opened last November and is the first such facility to be built in the UK,

The British Sugar bioethanol plant, which is located alongside the world's largest beet sugar factory at the Norfolk site will produce 70 million litres of bioethanol annually from locally grown sugar beet. The sugar factory's efficient combined heat and power plant also provides energy for the bioethanol plant ensuring that bioethanol produced here delivers a carbon emissions saving of at least 60% compared to fossil derived petrol.

According to British Sugar project manager Nick Williams: “British Sugar had completed a number of projects involving large quantities of Tyco products in recent years. We have found them robust and relatively maintenance-free with a good life expectancy. For the various zoned areas at Wissington we required a wide range of product types and it was useful to be able to source most of these from a single supplier.”

Tyco supplied the packages in collaboration with CEL Project Management. Control valves on the project include variable port control valves, butterfly valves and resilient seated butterfly valves with high temperature resistant XP seats rated at 150 degrees C continuous operation. All control valves are controlled with Tyco SmartCal electro-pneumatic positioners with enclosure to ATEX II 2G EEx ib T4-IP66.

The positioners employ the open Foundation Fieldbus communication protocol, and feature remote diagnostics. For the open-close valves the Tyco XA position monitors have been selected. These ATEX II 2GD EEx d IIB-rated units are all linked to the Honeywell control system via an AS-interface network connection.

According to Tyco, its variable port control valve with its floating ball design is designed for precision flow control of high pressure, high temperature and aggressive features typically encountered in the field of bioethanol production. With features including a custom-designed orifice in the ball to tailor the valve flow characteristic to actual conditions, it also provides high turn down capabilities. The valve is provided with a fugitive emission port, anti-static devices and blow out stems and a patented stem seal for high emissions control under demanding conditions.