Trend takes control of biomass boilers
When biomass boilers at Atlantic College on the South Wales coast failed to operate correctly because of problems with the heating system’s internal process controlled a BEMS from Trend Control Systems came to the rescue. It was among the first educational institutions in the world to follow the international baccalaureate curriculum and has 350 students from over 90 countries.
The two biomass boilers have a combined output of 1.2 MW and were installed in 2004 to replace an aging and unreliable oil-fired boiler system. The new boilers used locally sourced wood chips.
By 2010, the original process controllers for the biomass boilers were regularly failing. This was due to aging mechanical components causing the process controllers to burn out due to a lack of motor protection. Replacement parts were expensive and difficult to source, which meant the college had to rely on a back-up LPG boiler and the older oil-fired boiler.
Global Building Controls was called in with a view to specifying and installing a new control system. Director Paul Martin said, ‘After carrying out a site visit, we concluded that most of the modern controllers available would need a lot of mechanical modification to make them compatible with the existing system. To address this issue, we decided to design and manufacture a process-control system that would work in harmony with the existing mechanical components utilising a BEMS from Trend.’
The capabilities of the Trend BEMS include cold start, manual restart, slumber mode, burn-back protection, automatic burn-back monitoring and water dosing, oxygen-level monitoring, controlling variable-speed flue fans, stoker-feed control and controlling the pump for the cooling jacket.
An IQ controller adjusts boiler output. There is a local IQView4 display and a site 963 Supervisor that acts as a window to the BEMS and is connected via a local area network (LAN).
Atlantic College has also commissioned GBC to improve the energy efficiency of its swimming pools by installing inverters to drive the pool pumps. The equipment for monitoring pool dosing equipment has also been integrated into the 963 Supervisor, so that pool-water quality can be logged by the BEMS.
Nick Grenfell-Marten, director of operations at Atlantic College, is delighted with what has been achieved and says, ‘The installation of Trend BEMS boiler process control has played a vital role in achieving additional energy reductions and lowering the site’s overall carbon emissions, as the new controls have enabled a reduction in the amount of wood chips needed, without a loss of heating output. It is an excellent result for us and I’m looking forward to discovering new ways of using the Trend BEMS to make further savings.’
