Irish Boiler-free laundry

Plant Technology

‘Steam-Free’:

A 21st Century Solution

Six years ago, an Irish laundry junked its boiler in favor of a new system based on direct-contact water heating

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The WMSHL plant certainly is groundbreaking in North America in terms of size and specific type of energy in use. However, any claim that it ‘may be the first in the world’ is wide of the mark as this review of the OCL Laundry Services plant in Claremorris, County Mayo, Ireland, will set out to show.

Conservation quest

(above) Alan O’Connor, managing director, OCL Laundry Services Ltd., Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland, stands proudly in the dryer aisle on completion of his total conversion to ‘steam-free’ operations in March 2005. (top right) Kemco Direct Contact Water Heater—seen here as retro-fitted at laundry sites around the world.

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By Irving Scott

n recent months, there’s been much publicity about the benefits and economies of operating laundry plants completely ‘steam-free.’ Indeed, there have even been claims that the new installation at West Michigan Shared Hospital Laundry (WMSHL) reviewed in the March 2010 and February 2011 editions of Textile Rental, may have been, not only the ‘first steam-free plant in North America, but even in the world.’

The OCL plant currently is processing between 80,000 lbs. of processed work per week and up to 200,000 lbs. per week in the peak tourist weeks. Although small in terms of capacity and throughput, when set against typical U.S. installations, in 2005 OCL was the first laundry in Europe to adopt the then-radical plan of finding a costeffective alternative to the conventional steam-driven laundry. This quest was accomplished, not by a ‘traditional’ laundry family business, which had spent several generations in the ‘wash and squash’ business, but by newcomers to the flatwork processing business.

After a generation spent in another ‘steam hungry’ industry, that of bread making in a large plant serving almost one-third of the Irish market, the O’Connor family—father Tommy and son Alan— having sold the bakery, decided to invest in servicing the laundry requirements of the hospitality business in what, at that time, was the booming ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy. Almost immediately, they realized that the energy costs associated with traditional steam boiler generation were too severe for their new laundry business, and in 2001, a lengthy research study across Europe led them to the radical solution to their problem.

A visit to the Frankfurt Texcare Show that year had introduced the O’Connors to an efficient alternative to boiler-based steam generation. Here, they discovered the European distributor of the ultimate solution to their quest: Kemco Systems Inc, from Clearwater, FL, represented by Walton Dunlop, director of Dunlop Design Engineering in Northern Ireland. After much discussion, detailed evaluation and plant visits in France and Germany, the Dunlop Co. was asked to install an energy-saving system for heating water in the plant using the market-leading direct-contact water heating system from Kemco, together with an extensive water-recycling and heat recovery system, also from Kemco. These systems together, were linked directly to the 18-stage Voss, Continuous Tunnel Washer (CTW) with 35 kg (77 lbs.) load capacity.

Steam-free conversion The Kemco direct-contact water heating system was installed in

Reprinted with permission of Textile Rental magazine, the official publication of the Textile Rental Services Association of America

Vision to reality Alan O’Connor is emphatic about his experiences at the OCL Laundry: “If we had not made the investment and gone for 100% steam-free operations, we would most likely not now be in business,” he says. “We could not have survived the huge cost increases in oil and bottled gas and there would have been no energy efficiencies without the Kemco Systems.

“We also have many other operational benefits after becoming a steam-free operation, including the ability to start work in any section of the plant when required—without starting up the boiler and waiting for the entire plant to be at temperature just to operate one ironer line or a dryer. Neither is there the total waste-heat loss created by boiler inefficiencies and steam trap leaks and general costs of maintenance of the steam system, including annual inspection and insurance costs. We save also on water recycling with its attendant heat recovery, using the Kemco heat exchanger and we send much less wastewater to drain.

“If, or maybe whenever, we build a new plant, it would be driven and powered by Kemco Systems wherever appropriate, in conjunction with natural gas. That would ensure that our energy costs were always under control and that our plant was organized in the most efficient and flexible way possible. In addition, we would certainly use our own, on-site maintenance staff to continuously monitor all the machinery. Managed, routine, preventative maintenance is an absolute essential in laundry operations—just as it was when we were producing tens of thousands of loaves of bread each day in our

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2005. It’s one of the fastest water-heating systems on the market that delivers a guaranteed, 99.7% energy efficiency in operation compared to the 65-80% efficiency performance of conventional boilers for water heating or steam generation. Demand led, the direct-contact heater reacts to calls for hot water instantly, thus delivering much-reduced fuel consumption, as there’s no ‘buildup’ delay in producing at the correct temperature.

Complete steam-free processing throughout the plant wasn’t achieved until March 2005, when the five Kent dryers each of 60 kg (132 lbs.) capacity—were converted, on site, to gas-fired operation and two Jensen gas-fired, ironer lines were installed. Thus, there was no further need for money-burning, oil-fired steam generation. The boiler has been unused since early 2005. It’s no longer needed, and the steam pipe runs of many hundreds of yards around the plant have been scrapped. The boiler is on offer, free of charge, to anyone who will remove it from site.

Experience of the system in use resulted—in the first year of operation—in total savings of more than 50% in energy costs. The heat exchanger installed as part of the direct-contact water heating system is effectively returning heat from effluent process water to the incoming feed water to the CTW and this too, adds significantly to the cost effectiveness of the system. Since March 2005, further energy-efficiency improvements have been made to accommodate the introduction of natural gas as the primary energy source to the plant, thus resulting in the current economies. The total energy costs at the plant were 6% of turnover before the introduction of steamfree operations. Today, they are 3.4% of turnover—on an increased throughput in the nearly six years of steam-free operation.

The launch celebration group at the official opening of the ‘steam-free’ OCL plant, in May 2006. (l/r) Walton Dunlop, Dunlop Design Engineering Ltd.; Dennis Rutland, Jensen SSC UK; Beverley Flynn T.D., Member of Parliament for Co. Mayo; Alan O’Connor, OCL Laundry, Claremorris; Declan McAteer, Ecolab, Ireland.

former bakery business.

“We have spent a good deal of money developing our steam-free operations, and now we have a highly energy-efficient plant as a direct result of the efforts we put in to remove the inefficiencies of steam heating from the laundry. In our opinion, the only route to follow is the gas-fired route, which gives us, with our Kemco systems, nearly 60% savings in energy costs and a water usage figure of 3.5 liters per kg of work processed (in U.S. terms: 0.9246 gallons of water per 2.2 lbs.).

“My father always said, ‘Steam is an expensive luxury and after more than 250 years it has surely had its day.’ Sadly, he did not live to see the results of his quest for a 21st century solution to power generation, but OCL Laundry is a very real memorial to his determination to install the most cost-effective energy solution.”

Alan O’Connor is a genuine missionary in the cause of steam-free laundry processing, and opinions may differ across the laundry industry about his preferred solution to this perennial, power- and heat-generation problem. However, in the history of the steam-free concept, for laundries across the world, the Kemco Systems Inc. solution, selected by OCL in 2001, and which was finally implemented with other gas-fired equipment throughout the OCL plant on March 22, 2005, remains the earliest recorded installation of a totally steam-free laundry.

Author’s note: If any reader of this article can suggest a date for a steamfree laundry that precedes 3/22/05, perhaps they would like to contact the editor of Textile Rental.

Editor’s note: Textile Rental contacted Gerard O’Neill, who oversaw the steam-free makeover of the WMSHL facility in Grand Rapids, MI. He told us he’s familiar with the OCL laundry and drew ideas from it in designing the system in Michigan. O’Neill also says that in the late ’90s Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL, established a steamless laundry using a central thermal system. Textile Rental would welcome any additional comments from readers on the history and evolution of steamless processing. TR Irving Scott is a freelance writer and editor based in England.