Cross-sectional diagram of a jet engine with four sections: air intake (red arrows), compression (green arrows), combustion (orange arrows with glow), and exhaust (blue arrows)

Explaining Compressed Air Systems & Full Airside and Waterside Heat Recovery

17 May 2018

At Varming Consulting Engineers Ireland, we are major exponents of sustainable design techniques that make our client projects as energy efficient and ecologically sound as they possibly can be. There are many new and emerging techniques being used in modern building design and we now look at a few that our mechanical and electrical engineers used on a project we completed at the Kerrygold Packing Facility in Mitchelstown, County Cork.

Heat Recovery

Amongst a range of methods used was a food grade compressed air system with full airside and waterside heat recovery which is able to make use of heat that would otherwise be lost, providing heating for use elsewhere in the production facility.  The system is also provided with an intelligent compressor sequence controller to control and optimise the operation of the compressors and base load sequencing.

The cutting edge 6,000 square metre butter packing facility was given a highly efficient compressed air system that channels the heat created during its use to preheat domestic hot water and a motorised damper arrangement for reclaiming of the rejected heat for use in the adjacent maintenance stores.

Our experienced building services design consultants also implemented the following energy efficiency measures:

  • Lighting control systems with absence & presence detection
  • Heat recovery systems from process chillers for production use
  • LED lighting through the plant
  • Process cooling water system, supplying +1°C water for production use
  • Use of MTHW for process equipment in lieu of steam

To view the full details of the project, follow this link.

Ecologically sound

By using intelligent, resource friendly technologies like these, facilities and other industrial sites can achieve a much greater degree of sustainability in its production and its impact on its local environment.

If you would like to find out more about what we do or about what sustainable building design can do for you projects, you should visit our website www.varming.ie. For guidance and advice you can also call our head office on 01 4872300 where one of our experienced team will be glad to help in any way they can.