Located in the English midlands, the Worksop-based Campbell Grocery Products plant manufactures some of the company’s most recognisable brands A subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company, its five autonomous manufacturing centres are responsible for Oxo, Homepride Cook-in-Sauces, Batchelor’s Super Noodles, the Batchelor’s Mushy Pea cannery, and the company's R&D facility.
Needless to say, the consumption of gas, electricity, water, steam and compressed air is fairly high for typical production operations.
Monitoring utility usage across the five manufacturing centres is the Simatic WinCC system from Siemens, which is currently in the middle of upgrade from v5 to v6 (Fig.1). It has the capability to monitor specific production zones or discrete items of equipment using an array of 128tags/meter (soon to be 256).
“As well as helping us comply with industry requirements for monitoring and targeting, in the first three years we saw a six-figure financial saving enabling the original project outlay to be recouped in less than one year,” says Mick Blackburn, energy manager at the site. “Today we are actually witnessing a two per cent energy cost reduction year-on-year, which is pretty impressive. The Siemens system allows us to see exactly who is using what, where and when.”
As a result, Blackburn says the company is continuously pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved: “It’s a real eye-opener for the customers and suppliers who visit here. The current upgrade will allow us to monitor in real time whereas currently the system only takes readings every 30 minutes, which can sometimes mean that specific peaks are missed.”
Emissions monitoring
Another advantage soon to be presented by the current upgrade to v6 is the integration of emissions monitoring into the company’s already impressive list of energy monitoring capabilities. The aim is to check the emissions of steam boilers at the Worksop plant, proving that they are efficient and that they burn gases correctly. It’s a feature that Campbell currently has available, though only in a stand-alone capacity.
“Eventually the aim is to have a
self-monitoring facility that allows anybody to pull information from the system and this could be a reality within the next two years,” notes Blackburn.
Masterminding the whole project at Worksop is Industrial Control Solutions (ICS), which recommended the original Siemens WinCC package to Campbell. “Fortunately Mick had the foresight to have a continuous service contract in place with ourselves, which has allowed us to undertake small upgrades as and when required, such as adding the occasional tag or wiring in a new meter,” says Steve McDermott, business development manager at ICS. “One of the major benefits of WinCC is its flexibility. For instance, the original installation had no direct connection with the PLCs; instead the remote meters use a radio connection and then DDE links add the data to the relational database on the system’s hard disk. Campbell has recently installed an Ethernet network, and we can now interface directly to the SIMATIC S7-200 PLCs.”
In addition to energy cost reductions, the Siemens WinCC system also enables Campbell to conform to the many regulations and quality standards prevalent throughout the food industry. For instance, in 2005, the food sector witnessed the introduction of the European Integrated Pollution Control Certificate (IPCC), for which the monitoring and reporting provided by WinCC proved invaluable to Campbell. In a similar vein, the company has now gained accreditation to ISO14000: 2004, several months before it becomes mandatory in July 2006. Campbells have also just completed verification for 2005 the first phase of the EU-ETS combustion plant emissions programme.
Five per cent cut in gas consumption
In a further effort to improve its performance, the Worksop site has also recently installed the Fuel+ energy saving solution from Maxsys. Gas consumption has already been cut by five per cent, recouping the initial capital outlay for the system.
According to Maxsys, its technology provides cost effective energy saving equipment across a wide range of process industries, including food and drink. The company’s Fuel+ pre-treats fuel – both gas and oil – supplied to the burners of a unit to enhance combustion, producing a cleaner burn and reducing carbon emissions.
“Although Maxsys approached us, I had heard of the system,” explains Blackburn. “Fuel+ improves combustion by applying a precisely calibrated magnetic field to the fuel. The unit is installed into the fuel supply line before the burner. Maxsys guaranteed that we would achieve five per cent energy savings. We agreed that once it was installed the effectiveness of the system would be independently monitored and verified by ABB. If the system fell short of five per cent return, all our money would be returned. Hence it really was a situation where we couldn’t lose.”
Statistical technique
After six months of operation the system was assessed independently by ABB using a statistical technique called CUSUM, which compares predicted with actual steam generation. The cumulative difference is plotted and if an improvement has occurred the chart should indicate a rise in steam generation.
ABB concluded that over the post-commissioning period 316500kg more steam was generated than would have been expected, which is equivalent to an improvement of five per cent. A simplified check also verified this impressive result. Pre-Fuel+, the boiler system at Campbell averaged 13.25kg of steam generated for every cubic metre of gas consumed. Post installation showed 14.14kg of steam produced for the same quantity of gas consumption – a rise of 6.7percent.
“It’s very pleasing that the Fuel+ system is hitting its five per cent target,” says Blackburn, “and even more satisfying that we have already recouped our capital outlay. At Campbell we are always looking to improve our environmental procedures. This directive is now issued at corporate level and as an organisation we are keen to try anything that will help us improve our energy efficiency. Fuel+ assists with this aim as well as many other things, such as reduced carbon dioxide emissions.”
Another important factor is the contribution made by Fuel+ towards Campbell achieving its 80percent climate change levy discount. If an organisation fails to reach the targets set out in its agreement with the UK Government then it will not be able to claim the 80 per cent reduction in the levy.
However, the company is already way out in front, as Blackburn explains: “Our targets are already set up to 2011, however, because of the work we have already undertaken and the systems we have implemented, including Fuel+, we are already meeting our targets for 2010,” he says. “Our aim is to lead rather than follow – a philosophy that is standing the company in good stead for the future.”
