DISAB BagVac proves its value to SITA UK
SITA UK EfW plant in Huddersfield improves its biannual maintenance efficiency with BagVac system
SITA UK are reaping the benefits of using a DISAB BagVac at their Huddersfield energy-from-waste (EfW) plant to remove fly ash residue from the hoppers and to carry out a post outage clean-up, saving time and money on their biannual maintenance programme.
The company has a 25-year contract with Kirklees Metropolitan Council, one of the largest unitary authorities in the UK with a key objective to achieve a minimum 60% diversion from landfill.
As part of the contract, SITA UK are responsible for operating five household waste recycling centres and an old incinerator/transfer station on Vine Street, near the centre of Huddersfield. In 2000, the latter facility was transformed into an EfW plant with an attached materials recycling facility, processing 136,000 tonnes of waste each year and generating approximately 10MW of electricity – enough to supply the annual electricity needs of around 15,000 homes.
To meet the Environmental Agency’s standards and routine inspections, the EfW plant is closed down twice a year for major maintenance, part of which involves removing around 2-3 tonnes of fly ash that inevitably builds up as a result of the incineration process and the maintenance work carried out on various areas of the plant.
Previously this was dealt with both manually and with small industrial vacuum equipment, but earlier in the year Mark Ryan, site operations manager, decided to look at the use of a DISAB BagVac. Impressed with what the BagVac can do on site during a demonstration, Mr Ryan hired a BagVac system for use on the EfW plant’s biannual maintenance programme.
‘Hiring the BagVac for a month allowed my team to remove two to three tonnes of fly ash and general dust build up from around the EfW plant ,well within the deadline of the maintenance outage we’d planned,’ he commented. ‘It was quick and more time was spent cleaning than emptying things or moving equipment around.’
The BagVac system includes: a 60ft flexible suction hose; extension pipes and cleaning nozzles to ensure accessing and removing every scrap of fly ash/dust becomes a relatively simple and, more importantly, faster job to carry out in complete safety. The entire vacuum process from cleaning head to bag is enclosed, minimizing the risk of creating airborne dust using brushes and brooms, and dust exposure for plant operatives
Mr Ryan has been looking at purchasing the BagVac. ‘It would give us a major 24/7 cleaning tool, and we’d be able to use it for the regular housekeeping programmes,’ he commented. ‘Moving it around with a forklift would give us the flexibility to deal with the transfer station as well…It’s a big step forward for the way we do things in terms of meeting the Environmental Agency’s requirements.’
