Objective:

Our Technical Specialists carried out a steam system survey for a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in Malaysia. The objectives of the survey included addressing the issue of severe waterhammering in the system, addressing the loss of water and flash steam from the condensate collection tank, identifying the potential for improvement in the steam and condensate system and developing a central monitoring system for the steam system.

Issue:

  1. Severe waterhammering in the condensate lines and condensate tank vibration which was a safety concern
  2. Flash steam venting and loss of condensate from condensate collection tank
  3. Abnormally high temperature in the condensate tank despite the condensate recovery factor being low
  4. Higher steam consumption

Root cause:

We carried out a detailed assessment of the system. This included

  • A root cause analysis to identify the reasons for the severe vibrations and waterhammering
  • The cause was attributed to the presence of live steam and condensate in the condensate return line
  • A detailed assessment of the steam traps was carried out to understand the reasons for live steam in the condensate network
  • The design of the existing condensate recovery system was conventional and there was no provision to recover flash seam which was being vented locally
  • Condensate temperature was found to be high only due to live steam
  • The system was evalued to review the current diagnostics available in the plant vis-a-vis critical diagnostics required in the system to develop a centralised monitoring system for steam

Solution:

Our team prepared a Steam Plant Optimization report capturing our detailed observations and solutions for each of the concern areas:

  • A list of all the leaking steam traps in the plant which were required to be replaced.
  • Design modifications and retrofits required to the existing condensate recovery system to recover both condensate and flash steam without any loss to the feed tank. This included installation of a Flash Jet Pump and a deaerator head.
  • Installation of moisture separators for the steam header and Lyo Plant
  • Design of a central monitoring system (everSense) for steam along with steam flow meters to enable the plant to remotely get realtime information of critical parameters

Benefit:

  1. Enhanced system safety by eliminating the issue of waterhammering and condensate tank vibrations
  2. Recovery of condensate at a temperature of 105˚C,
  3. Complete recovery of flash steam (no venting of flash steam to atmosphere)
  4. Steam Monitory Savings – 30,607 MYR/Annum
  5. Water Monitory Savings – 4,562 MYR/Annum
  6. Savings from Leaking Steam – 58,169 MYR/Annum
  7. Total Monetary saving 93,338 MYR/Annum (22,223 USD/Annum)