Magnetic treatment attracts fuel savings at Tensar

Blackburn, UK - Tensar Manufacturing, a supplier of soil reinforcement and ground stabilisation technology, has cut gas consumption by 6% and improved boiler efficiency by about the same level though the use of magnetic fuel treatment on one of its gas-fired steam-raising boilers.

The Thomas Cochran steam raising boiler at the Blackburn-based company is rated at 3,000kg/hr and operates at 6.5 barg. 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/hr 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.

The data collected showed a reduction in gas consumption of 5.78% with boiler efficiency (steam-gas ratio) also improving after the fuel system was fitted. The average ratio recorded in the pre-installation data set was 2.718 lb of steam generated per kWh of gas consumed. Post installation, this figure had increased to 2.867 lb/kWh, representing 5.46% more steam generated for the same amount of gas consumed (or less gas consumed for the same amount of steam produced).