Lanemark process heating control for malting expansion
15 Sep 2011
The control characteristics associated with process gas burner technology from Lanemark International Ltd. have been at the heart of a major plant development recently undertaken at Bairds Malt - part of GrainCorp Malt.
The new state-of-the-art malting plant features a stainless steel finish across all process vessels and was supplied by the specialist malting plant supplier Buhler GmbH of Germany. Built within Bairds’ existing site on Elliot Industrial Estate, in Arbroath, it is the first new plant to be built in Scotland for some 25 years.
The investment incorporates the latest innovations in malting technology and process control, with quality monitoring offering the highest levels of efficiency and product consistency. A commitment to reduced energy and water consumption has been a design priority, as has ensuring sustained operational capability for a company, which, as Scotland’s leading malt producer, can process 175,000 tonnes of malt per year, destined primarily for the whisky distilling market.
The expansion at the site in Arbroath has incorporated the installation of a new design, Eco-Steep, the first in the UK. Steep water heating is a fundamental part of the production process and now benefits from a Lanemark TX 40 water heating system that features a burner arrangement that utilises a small diameter, multi-pass immersion tube heat exchanger. This is fitted directly to a 13.5m high water storage and supply vessel, for the steeping process, with the burner control system set to deliver process water during winter months at 12°C, which satisfies an essential condition for optimum barley growth.
“Before the new vessel was installed and fitted with the process burner system, the Lanemark heating arrangement was installed into a smaller existing vessel, which effectively acted as a testing facility,” explains Lanemark International’s General Manager, Adrian Langford. “We installed the burner and its associated controls within an adjacent plant room and the system performance was monitored over a 12 month period.
“Once proven, the burner system was replicated on the steep water heating for the new plant expansion,” he adds. “It is now fulfilling the project’s objectives in terms of temperature control and the consistency of the process heat it delivers to the larger volume of water.”
The use of the Lanemark system also helped achieve a key aim associated with the overall upgrading of the plant which, complete with a new grain drying complex, is capable of producing over 300 tonnes of malt every 48 hours with total annual production now reaching over 57,000 tonnes -
“We took the decision to replace an existing steam-based facility with a system that uses natural gas,” explains Roger Bishop, Engineering Manager at Bairds Malt. “Because this means that the heat generation is now localised, the process line losses that are inevitable with a centralised steam facility have been eradicated, enabling us to enjoy much greater control of the steep water heating process and far more economic use of energy. This is important given the fundamental role it plays in the malting processes.”
Lanemark’s TxCalc modelling software was applied to the installation prior to specification and the results it demonstrated are now being played out in Scotland. “Typically, our TX tank heating installations deliver in excess of 80% efficiency - enhancing the company’s decision to move away from steam generation to ’point of use’ heating with Lanemark process gas burner technology,” concludes Adrian Langford.
