Steam could be a solution to facilitate faster biomedical waste management.

According to Process Heating:

“When a Canadian biomedical waste management company secured a new, large contract near its Brampton, Ont., facility, the company might have needed to transfer that waste to another of its facilities at great financial expense. A recent boiler upgrade at the Brampton facility, however, allowed Daniels Health Canada to free up five hours a day of production time. This gives the Daniels’ Brampton facility the capacity needed to handle increased volumes without having to transfer waste.

“For Daniels, processing biomedical waste relies on the boiler. Without steam, there is no production, and the boiler system has to be dependable and provide maximum uptime. Daniels Health has a large pressure vessel where they sterilize biomedical waste. It requires a certain steam pressure and high temperature.

“Prior to the upgrade, the problem was that the boiler — a horizontal coiled-tube design — would not allow steam to come in fast enough to satisfy the autoclave. This resulted in the sterilization cycle time taking 60 to 75 minutes to complete — much too long. As a result, productivity was not where it needed to be. Plus, the long cycle time was taxing on the boiler, which meant high maintenance costs and expensive downtime.

“Daniels Health Canada reached out to industrial boiler maker Clayton Industries, City of Industry, Calif., for a solution to the steam system bottleneck. The Clayton team determined Daniels needed a boiler and a steam accumulator that would produce maximum steam in the shortest time possible. The accumulator stores energy in the form of water, which flashes to steam quickly. 

“Clayton’s regional sales manager Ron Polidori explained, ‘With the accumulator being ‘charged and ready,’ it can provide the autoclave with steam on-demand as needed, literally in seconds.’

“Daniels CEO Kennedy expressed reservations because they had tried accumulators in the past and had mixed and inconsistent results. But, the team at Clayton knew it was the right answer. They just had to find a custom solution that would ensure optimal operation. Clayton’s steam expert, industry partners and the engineer from the accumulator manufacturer met and designed a system they knew would work.

“Their solution: A Clayton SigmaFire SF200 Boiler with 200 hp and 300 psig, a feedwater tank and the accumulator they had evaluated and approved.

“With Daniels’ old boiler, the cycle time took up to 75 minutes. With the efficiencies of the new boiler and accumulator, the autoclave cycle time was reduced to 55 minutes. Daniels Health began operating 25 percent faster.

“Usually, management would not call it ‘fortunate’ when a boiler needs replacing. Daniel Kennedy, CEO of Daniels Health Canada said, ‘Clayton Industries’ solution shaved off 10 to 15 minutes from each cycle. Multiply that by 20 cycles a day, and it frees up 5 hours a day, which gives us the capacity to handle increased volumes without the need to transfer waste.’”

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