Dustraction’s system at SAM Mouldings heats the factory, and reduces waste disposal costs
Northern Ireland mouldings manufacturer SAM Mouldings has been tallying up the energy savings it’s made since installing a Dustraction extraction system.
Before installing its latest extraction system in conjunction with the Carbon Trust, Dustraction had first to upgrade and move an older 80m3 storage silo, the fourth they have installed on SAM Mouldings’ eight-acre Antrim site, to enable the flow of MDF waste to be switched between silo stores. A new two-way diverter at the outlet of cyclo filters three and four ensures a reliable feed source for the combined heat and power plant.
The extraction system uses the 2.5 tons of MDF waste generated per hour to heat the factory plus all of its paint-drying processes. This, production director Mark Kirkpatrick estimates, saves the company around £72,000 per year. A further £180,000 per year is saved in waste disposal costs.
Dustraction’s longer-term role in the enterprise has been continually to upgrade the waste extraction, storage and delivery mechanisms needed to get the now valuable woodwaste fuel to the electricity generating turbine via an MDF chippings and dust incinerator. An additional cyclo filter has also been installed to exhaust waste from a repositioned hogger via an external network of ducting.
The layout Dustraction has installed is designed to feed a biomass wood chip and dust boiler with a heat exchanger and steam turbine, partially funded by an interest-free Energy Efficiency loan from the Carbon Trust.
"We can all now sleep at night knowing that by avoiding the use of fossil fuels, we are saving about 1,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being pumped into the atmosphere each and every year," said Mr Kirkpatrick.
