Steam generators now supply the busy Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust laundry, where 4.5 million pieces of linen are washed every year. Two energy-efficient Clayton generators have been installed at the Trust’s Fulbourn Hospital in Cambridge, England.
Each generator is capable of producing nearly 4 metric tons of steam per hour and designed to operate unattended. Fuel to fire, the boilers can be either oil or natural gas.
Because of Clayton’s forced circulation monotube coil concept, it isn’t necessary to contain large volumes of water. Advantages include lower operational costs and fast response time.
When the steam generator is in stand-by mode and completely cold, start-up within approximately five minutes is possible, the company says.
Its low water-storage requirement eliminates the possibility of a steam explosion, Clayton adds.
The laundry is vital to Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust, a leading international center for biomedical research and medical education. As well as being the local district hospital for 480,000 people, the Fulbourn Hospital is also being developed as a major center for treatment and research on a European scale.
“The laundry is one of the essential back-up services which are needed to support the medical work of the Trust,” says Malcolm Creek, estates manager at Fulbourn Hospital. “It is important, therefore, to have a reliable source of steam to keep the laundry running.”
Two generator models EOG-254 are positioned side by side, and the feedwater treatment equipment is mounted on a skid base, which was preassembled as a packaged unit for ease of installation.
The feedwater equipment includes a hot well, chemical injection system, and transfer pumps with interconnected piping, valves and fittings. The hot well provides feedwater for the steam generator and acts as a reservoir for returned condensate.
The hot well is a partial deaerator capable of removing most of the oxygen, which is a major cause of corrosion in feedwater, Clayton says. The hot well is steam-heated to maintain the temperature at around 95 C (203 F).
