Jim Kelly, Maintenance Manager, Centocor Biologics (Ireland)
Switching to an alternative fuel source -
Case study on installation of a Biomass Boiler
• Part of Johnson and Johnson since 1999.
• Cork site chosen as Green field Biotech site.
• Capable of manufacturing medicines for rheumatoid arthritis, Crohns disease and psoriasis.
• 2004. Engineering design
• 2005. Construction
• 2006. Commissioning
• 2007. Equipment Validation• 2008. Engineering runs, Consistency lots
• 2009. Process Validation and IMB licence
• 2010. FDA approval.
Centocor Biologics (Ireland) - History
• 5 buildings covering 25,000 sqm.– Manufacturing– Warehouse– Labs and Admin– Central Utilities Plant (CUP)– Waste water treatment plant
• CUP– Utility generation
• Plant Steam• Chilled water• Compressed air• WFI• Clean Steam
Site layout
• Two 12 tonne, 8.5 bar gas fired boilers.
• Burning approximately 17 GWhrs of gas per year.
• Steam demand varying from 2 to 5 tonnes/hr.
• Annual CO2 emissions of 3100 tonnes.
• Main steam users– WFI generation– Clean steam generation– Heating hot water for space heating
Steam usage
Existing Gas boilers
• Main driver for project – carbon neutral.
• Carbon emitted from boiler cancelled out by carbon absorbed by trees that are used for woodchip.
• Second driver was fuel cost, wood is cheaper than gas – up to 15% savings have been achieved.
Reasons for choosing Biomass
• Project budget - €2.5M
• Project duration - 5 months
• Project Managers – Sisk
• Payback – 10 years
Project Summary
Boilerhouse
• Manufactured by Binder, AG, Austria.• Have 3000 boilers worldwide.
• 2.1MW, 2.5 tonne/hr, 8.5 bar output.
• Efficiency 87-90%.
• Fuel must be <= 50% moisture will go out.
• S02 150 mg/m3.
• NOx 250 mg/m3 .
• CO 150 mg/m3.
• Total Particulate matter 50 mg/m3.
• TOC < 5 mg/m3.
• Ash 1% of fuel volume. 0.8 m3 / day.
Boiler details
• Moving floor design, similar to old fashioned chain grate coal boilers.
• Ash removed by cyclone on boiler exhaust, also removed by auger at the end of the moving floor.
• Hot gas recirc used to clean boiler.
• Glosfume filtration unit downstream of boiler for removing particulates.
Boiler design
Boiler front
Boiler rear
• Supply contract with Natural Power Systems (NPS), Waterford.
• Supply woodchip to G100 standard at < 50% moisture.
• Range has been 36% to 50%.
• 24/7 supply maintained.
• Cost of woodchip based on Steam consumption of boiler.
• Fixed price for kWhr output of boiler.
• Ash removal once per week, two 200 litre drums per week.
Woodchip Supply Contract
• Four specially adapted 40 foot containers.
• Moving floor, hydraulically driven.
• Feed into auger supply system that feeds boiler.
• Each container carries up to 18 tonnes of woodchip.
• Delivery every 1.5 days, from Fermoy 25 miles away.
• Wood from Munster.
• Best results when wood is left to dry for 4 months, moisture will drop from 60% to 36%.
Woodchip containers
Container delivery
Container docked in position
Container hydraulic ram
Glosfume exhaust gas filter unit
• Exhaust gas particulates filtered by a Glosfume filter.
• Particulates filtered down to 0.1um.
• Particulates removed by banks of ceramic filters elements.
Glosfume exhaust gas filter unit
Questions?