The Challenge
A large industrial facility handling oils and chemicals faced significant issues with their tank car cleaning process. The cleaning system required precise control of water temperatures to ensure proper sanitation, but their existing hot water heating system was inefficient. Key issues included:
- Fouling and scaling in the current heaters, leading to frequent maintenance and reduced system efficiency.
- Hot water was wasted from the condensate return system, resulting in significant energy losses.
- High water turndown rate due to the infrequent usage of the system, causing inefficient steam and water management.
The facility needed a solution that would address these challenges while improving efficiency, reliability, and temperature control.
Key Requirements
To address these challenges, the company required a solution that could:
- Provide on-demand hot water with fast system recovery to maintain consistent tank car cleaning cycles.
- Ensure precise temperature control with a tolerance of +/- 1°F over a 45-minute cleaning cycle to meet sanitation standards, even in winter months.
- Improve system efficiency by reducing water waste and eliminating overflow of condensate to the drain.
- Handle intermittent operation and the demands of cleaning difficult materials like soybean oil.
- Feature a high turndown rate to effectively adjust for varying load conditions and demand changes.
- Prevent fouling and the accumulation of scale, which could lead to system inefficiencies and increased maintenance.
Solution
The ProSonix I-Series Direct Steam Injection Heater provided the ideal solution, addressing all key requirements with a range of advanced features. Its high turndown rate allowed it to efficiently handle varying steam and water flow demands, making it perfectly suited for intermittent operation and the dynamic needs of tank car cleaning. Key features of the ProSonix heater include:
- High Turndown Rate: The ProSonix heater can operate efficiently at varying flow rates, offering precise temperature control from start-up to peak demand, without the need for oversized systems.
- Faster Wash Cycles: Consistent hot water allowed for faster tank car cleaning compared to using cooler wash water.
- Ease of Installation: The ProSonix heater’s compact, inline design made installation quick and easy, without requiring extensive modifications to the existing infrastructure. This feature was key in the selection of the ProSonix heater over other competitors, who offered bulky skid-based systems that wouldn’t fit in the available space.
- Stable Operation: The heater provides consistent, stable performance by eliminating surging or fluctuations commonly found with other heating systems. This stability ensures reliable performance during the entire cleaning cycle, even with the fluctuating demands of tank car washing.
- High Performance: The ProSonix heater delivers precise, on-demand hot water at temperatures between 180°F and 220°F, consistently maintaining wash water temperatures with a tolerance of +/- 1°F over a 45-minute cleaning cycle.
- Prevention of Fouling: The ProSonix heater’s self-cleaning design ensures that mineral build-up or scale formation is prevented, reducing maintenance costs and ensuring long-term efficiency.
The heater replaced the inefficient condensate return system, redirecting the condensate back to the boiler house. This change eliminated waste and reduced operational costs, with the system paying for itself in just a couple of months due to the savings in condensate loss.
Summary
The ProSonix I-Series Direct Steam Injection Heater proved to be an ideal solution for tank car cleaning, addressing all the operational challenges with its high turndown rate, ease of installation, and stable, reliable performance.
The ProSonix heater’s fast start-up and recovery times, along with its compact design, made it the perfect solution for the tank car cleaning operation.