The South African Breweries (SAB) between 2012 and 2013 commenced a program that was aimed to reduce its carbon foot and emission. The Main objective was to cease the use of coal fired boilers. The SAB substituted their coal fired boilers by installing two new Natural Gas fired boilers and converting two coal Fired Boiler to Natural Gas with energy savings of 13-32%.
Why natural gas?
Natural Gas is one of the least contaminated fuels used for boiler operation. It does not generate any dirty emission or cause any unpleasant odours when burning. It is an eco-friendly alternative. This type of gas is steady and reliable, supply is seldom disturbed, even when demand is high, unlike electricity or oil that can be out-used. Natural gas is a convenient fuel for boiler purposes, it needs no storage tank on premises for reserve gas supplies.
Natural Gas is not only friendly to the atmosphere, it is also economy friendly. It is one of the least inexpensive fuels available, alternative fuels such as oil are subject to market fluctuations. This contributes to the overall economic nature of Gas fired boilers.
The Twin furnace boiler is the installed boiler type at the SAB plant, this type of boiler is ideally suited for large applications. This range can be equipped with super-heaters to produce very high quality energy. The boiler was supplied by Combustion Technology and the Burners by Limpsfield Combustion Engineering, an industrial burner manufacture supplying bespoke high efficiency burners for a range of applications, varying from industrial to water tube boilers, commercial fire tube boilers to ovens and furnaces. Efficiency, performance, low emission and fuel saving are what makes their range of burners stand out in combustion field.
Limpsfield Combustion Engineering designs and supplied:
- LC44 burner to produce 5 t/h steam with multi-fuel burner – firing Natural Gas and Biogas (produced in brewery) (simultaneous firing)
- LC88X2 – Twin furnace boiler to produce 20t/h of steam
- LC200 burner – to produce 25t/h steam
- Autoflame MK7 touchscreen Micro Modulation burner and boiler control
- Autoflame DTI (Data Transfer Interface) control panel for complete integration with site BMS via Modbus and Ethernet
- Autoflame EGA – Exhaust Gas Analyzer and trimming system.
– 3 parameter (O2, CO, CO2) combustion trim for improving efficiency and to in increase plant safety.
– CEMS software for Continuous Emissions Monitoring System and data logging
Benefits of installing a Natural Gas fuelled boiler
The brewery has improved from 175-154 MJ/HI to 105-99 MJ/HI – approximately 32% with an increase in boiler efficiency by approximately 13%. Sub 3% O2 levels through the complete firing range and CO less than 10ppm with significant reduction in maintenance costs.
Additional benefits;
- Consistently meeting air quality regulations
- Quieter boiler house
- New plant provides quick reaction to plant load and allows for easy maintenance
- Much cleaner boiler house and happy people
- The Autoflame/Limpsfield control and burner combination together with our Autoflame Exhaust Gas Analysers (EGA) has served us well and will recommend it to anybody. (Leroy Crawford – SAB Rosslyn Project Engineer)
The installation of a Natural Gas boiler has proven to be a more energy efficient, cost effective and eco-friendlier alternative for the South African Breweries plant.
