Richard Turvill, managing director at Swiss Camplings Laundry, is keen to help leave the planet in a better condition and supports intergenerational equity, in other words helping preserve natural resources and the environment for the benefit of future generations.

Always at the forefront of laundry technology, Swiss Camplings Laundry in Great Yarmouth has recently installed Heat Exhaust Recovery equipment that will free the energy from the ironers to be used in the washing process.

The new technology is used in Europe and is now a viable option in the UK. Around 100 units operate currently across Europe using Heat X Air technology. It works best with those laundries built as zero-steam facilities and when the Swiss Camplings site at Great Yarmouth was designed, forward planning took this into consideration.

Dan Bircham, water and energy engineer at Christeyns headed up the project working in collaboration with Swiss Camplings’s own team of onsite engineers as well as those from Christeyns engineering. The whole process from delivery of the parts to commissioning took only four weeks.

Christeyns has extensive experience of delivering water and energy solutions to commercial laundries in the UK and worldwide and partners with well-established water and energy equipment manufacturers to offer laundries an all-encompassing solution that takes into consideration all vital components of the laundry process. A combination of knowledge and expertise in chemistry application, water management and energy optimisation play a critical role in the success of these large projects and ensure laundries continue to meet their key objectives while also maintaining a good quality product. “This was a great project to work on,” states Bircham. “We start out by looking at the overall objectives of the laundry and then develop specific KPIs with the site management team to further promote continuous improvement of processes towards achieving their targets.”

Building on a wash process that already employs Christeyns Cool Chemistry, Heat Ex Air technology provides Swiss Camplings Laundry with an even more sustainable process that is less reliant on fossil fuels. The Heat Ex Air units achieve this by transferring free energy from the ironers to heat the incoming freshwater, reducing demand on the gas boilers for this purpose. The aim is to optimise wash processes to ensure that the laundry achieves the best possible efficiency through this crucial function. “We have worked closely in partnership with Christeyns on energy reduction from the beginning of our new factory’s journey,” comments Turvill. “Our approach has been to take a long-term view of ROI; but by reducing our energy bill by over 10 per cent, we are both moving towards our ambition of zero carbon washing and achieving a sensible return.” The two types of system installed were Christeyns Heat X Air C, Combustion Gas Heat Recovery and Heat X Air E, Extraction Air Heat Recovery.

The Heat X Air C is a finned pipe indirect air to water heat exchanger. The fins on the pipes create a much larger surface area of about 35 m2, increasing the efficiency of the unit and keeping it compact. It is capable of reclaiming up to 100 kWh of gas ironer input with freshwater temperatures of up to 65 degrees centigrade.

The Heat X Air E is an air to water heat exchanger which will heat fresh water to between 45 and 60 degrees centigrade whilst simultaneously cooling the extract air to below dew point to be removed as condensate. The wax and lint that are ordinarily carried up the flue are also removed with it, thus making the unit self-cleaning.

Both sensible and latent heat are recovered with up to 35 per cent of the ironer input energy recovered. Savings calculations were made based on utilities costs and production figures and are estimated as follows:

• Total energy saving 948,955 kWh pa
• Carbon reduction (CO2) 175 tonnes pa
• kWh/kg reduction 0.134

Efficient energy use is now more important than ever and being able to reclaim heat and reuse it clearly provides cost savings but Heat X Air also helps to lower the facility’s carbon footprint and has the additional ability to remove odours and pollutants and address excessive moisture levels.