What the average person may not realise is that there are two types of carbon footprint, primary and secondary.  The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO₂ from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation, e.g. car and plane.  The secondary footprint is a measure of indirect CO₂ emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use, those associated with their manufacturing and eventual breakdown. Improving the energy efficiency of industry both safeguards jobs and reduces our secondary carbon footprint.

Tata Steel

Tata Steel (formerly Corus) turned to Spooner Industries of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, to help them realise an energy-saving project which aimed to reduce gas consumption by 45%. The colour coat line, based at Tata in Shotton, produces painted steel strip where the paint is applied and dried in an oven system. The finished materials are used in the construction industry, for example, the new Spooner facility is finished almost entirely in painted steel, as well as being used for household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers.

In partnership with an American company, Anguil Environmental Systems, Spooner provided Tata with a Regenerative Thermal Oxidiser (RTO) which destroys the harmful solvents evaporated in the process and recovers over 85% of the energy required to destroy the solvents. Since the installation of the Spooner oxidiser, Tata is on course to save 60% in gas use, over £1 million a year, and reduce CO2 emissions on the plant by over 1 tonne every hour, nearly 8,000 tonnes per year. In addition to the oxidiser, a secondary heat exchanger recovers energy by preheating the air going into the ovens.

The graph illustrates the half-hourly gas consumption at Tata before the Spooner oxidiser was commissioned in January. The following months show a drastic reduction in gas consumption, over 60% since installation and Corus are on track to save over £ 1 million a year.

The investment from Tata was considerable, the existing system was 30 years old, and the ovens had to be brought up to the current standards. A new computerized control system was installed with dedicated safety systems. This system communicates with the central system at Tata and sets up the ovens correctly for each product.

Oxidiser – 3 canister RTO destroys over 99.5% of the solvent, and captures the heat with enough solvent the oxidiser requires no additional gas.

If you want to find out more about our Environment equipment, get in touch with Lois Scott at lscott@spooner.co.uk or call +44 (0)1943 609 505.

Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with news, developments and announcements.