The following is a collection of extracts from the Engineering Report my team wrote for the Engineering Education Scheme

in April 2011.

REPORT ON UTILIZING THE WASTE STEAM CONDENSATE AND POTABLE WATER

By:

Cannis Chan, Stephanie Chan, Natallia Savitskaya, Araya Taechamahaphant

SUPPORTED BY

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Information

The objective of the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) is to encourage Year 12, Lower 6th Form students to consider Science, Engineering and Technology as future career pathways through the experience of applying theoretical learning to the real world. As a team, the students work to solve a scientific, engineering or technological problem, of its company. They develop many key life skills through work-related learning at the core of this educational enrichment scheme. AstraZeneca sponsored and mentored a team from Badminton School, Bristol to partake in the Engineering Education Scheme, an Engineering Development Trust (EDT) programme. Their company profile is enclosed as Appendix A.

1.2 Project Brief

The Waverley House, Avlon Works Bristol is the main office building of the headquarters of AstraZeneca where more than 100 workers operate. Environmental protection has always been one of the main concerns of the company: one of the AstraZenecas continuous policies is to reduce the energy usage within its built environment to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere due to electricity generation. It has already begun optimising the Waverley House and managed to reduce its steam consumption and electrical consumption by over 20%, saving over 30,000 per year. It has achieved this by optimizing the building heating, chilling and ventilation requirements, as well as the occupants behaviour. Currently, the building is served by hot water, which is heated by steam supplied by the external boiler room. This is done though two calorifiers and heated water used as a medium to heat the building. Once the steam heats the water, it loses its energy and turns into steam condensate, just below 100oC. In order to be put down the drain, it has to be cooled by potable water to 40C in the condensate receiver. This raises environmental issues as both potable water and energy associated with the condensate are wasted. Therefore, we are trying to find solutions to make most use of the energy and water that exists in the condensate. Firstly, we tried to find other means to cool down the condensate before entering the drainage, saving the portable water used in the condensate receiver. Secondly, we aimed for a solution that enabled us to use this low-pressure hot water in a more effective way, rather than pouring it down the drain. Our group had a company visit to the AstraZeneca Avlon Works on 15th November 2010. By visiting the plantroom inside the Waverley House and the steam generator in the boiler house 150 meters away from the building, the project aim was carefully presented to us. We looked at the plantroom with the pipework and the air-handling unit, walked around the actual building and gained full understanding of the existing system. On the same day, we had a meeting with the other engineers from AstraZeneca, who gave us very constructive and beneficial advice on how to fulfil our project.

2.3 Research and Fact Finding

2.3.1 Initial ideas Having sketched the current situation [Appendix F], the best way to improve the system seemed to recycle the condensate: direct it back to the boiler room, then re-heat and re-use as steam. This would not only avoid pouring water down the drain completely , but more importantly, reduce the amount of energy used, as less energy would be required to make condensate into steam than to make cool water into steam. Furthermore, we looked into installing tanks for collection of rainwater and use it instead of potable water. Having sketched the solution design [Appendix G], our team visited the company headquarters near Bristol and had a meeting with AstraZeneca engineers on 15th November. When visiting the site, we learned that the boiler house is approximately 150 meters away from Waverley House [Figure 2.3]. Moreover, this distance was fully functional and occupied. This shows that our solution was applicable, because the condensate would lose so much of its leftover energy on the way back to the boiler house, that the cost of building the extra 150 meters of pipework would not be justified.
Figure 2.3 Aerial view of part of AstraZeneca site

150 m

Conserning the rainwater we found out that in the manufacturing areas water has to be treated to become potable, so apart from collection tanks with filtering, we would have to create a system of disinfection, purification and softening. As water undergoes these processes, a considerable amout of it is lost, so we decided that it was not justified to use rainwater. 2.3.2 Developing new solutions This experience assured us that we did not know enough about the problem set before us. To get further understanding and draw ideas for a new solution, we had to look at various engineering plans provided for us by AstraZeneca. This revealed to us that the air-handling unit (AHU) [Figure 2.4], part of the climate-control system of the building, was located in the same plantroom. The function of the AHU is to ensure that the air inside the building is completely renewed every two hours due to regulations required. To achieve Figure 2.4 Air Handling Unit this, it draws in the air from outside, bringing it to a constant temperature of 21C and supplying it to the different parts of the building. The warming and cooling of the air from outside is done using low pressure hot water heated by steam. We decided that we could use the condensate instead to do this job. This seemed a very plausible solution, as it only required little extra pipework inside the plant-room [Figure 2.5].

The original part of the pipework through the AHU could be fully replaced by the new condensate pipework. The pipework conducting the condensate from where the condensate is collected to the heating coils in the AHU can be built in the plant-room. The condensate can provide the heat energy needed by the AHU, thus reducing the overall energy used in the building.

Condensate receiver

current plumbing system required pipework

Air Handling Unit Water heated by steam Figure 2.5 Schematic drawing of the plantroom

In this way we would recover the energy previously lost in the condensate. Furthermore, our team decided that after the steam has been used in AHU, it would go on to be used in the greenhouse. The greenhouse was a completely new idea to boost the brand of the company and create a positive image as well as positively affect psychology of associates [Appendix H]. A low-grade warm water of about 21C is formed from the condensate after it is passed through the AHU. We think that this might be able to be utilised further by building a greenhouse with an underground heating that aids the warming up of the greenhouse.

4 SOLUTION AND EVALUATION 4.1 Solution and Evaluation of Results

Unfortunately problems we discovered problems with our solution when doing calculations from the data provided. It turned out that the maximum possible rate of energy transfer from the steam condensate is not sufficient to satisfy the requirement of the AHU, therefore it is not possible to fully abandon the original hot water cycle through the AHU. However, we did not completely discard our solution as we thought that the core idea of recycling the condensate could be retained. Instead, we worked out some alternations to the initial idea to make it more practical. We decided that we would keep the original heated water cycle, and reduce the energy drawn from it by adding an additional path for condensate mentioned in the initial solution, thus creating a double cycle. The condensate would be conducted from the condensate header to the frost coil in the AHU via a new distribution pipework. The two frost coils will take the heat energy available from the condensate and take the rest required from heated water. The pipework arrangement is shown in the attached diagram of the plant room [Figure 4.1] The 50mm diameter overhead pipework with an approximate length of 10m and incorporated with 2 valves, is routed from the condensate header through a strainer, then to the frost coil. The path for the cooled condensate, with an estimated length of 1m, is routed from the frost coil to an exit out of the plantroom. The subsequent route of the condensate after it is being conducted out of the building is discussed in the solution section of 4.1.3 Greenhouse.

pipework directing condensate from the condensate header to the frost coil pipework directing the departure of the cooled condensate Condensate header

Air Handling Unit

Calorifiers

Figure 4.1 Layout of the plantroom

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CONCLUSIONS
The team addressed the problem of wasting energy and potable water in the climate control system of an office building. After detailed analysis and testing it was found that the solution is to use the energy left in the steam condensate to provide 18.5% of the energy required by AHU. Furthermore, the warm water left after going through AHU could be used for irrigation in a nearby greenhouse. The solution needs further refinement, as more evaluation is required on the feasibility of building a greenhouse. We propose an in-depth cost analysis, as there is a great potential environmental impact. It is estimated that AstraZeneca will benefit financially through saving 2,527.23 annually despite a small implementation cost of 356.13 and socially through an improved environment with a stress-free zone.

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