Stripping ammonia from process water cuts manufacturing costs

A UK based food processing plant, which generates a waste water stream contaminated with ammonia can now recycle the process water, rather than dumping it to waste, thanks to an installation from Forbes.

Forbes solved their problem through the design, manufacture and installation of two large stripping units, dealing with a combined throughput of 25m3/hr of waste process water. The installation reduces the ammonia by up to 75%, now enabling the water to be recycled.   This low cost solution has proved to give a large financial return by saving high volumes of water & reducing the costs of waste water disposal.

The stripping units are 2400mm diameter x 8500mm high & incorporate a packed bed, along with all required internals,  produced by Forbes’ sister company The Pall Ring Company.  The packed bed gives a high surface area within the tower allowing the air stripping process to operate with a relatively low pressure drop, thus saving energy by reducing the power demand of the fans.

This is one of many such systems supplied by Forbes both in the UK & the Middle East. Often the stripped ammonia, can be scrubbed with a solution of sulphuric acid producing a concentrated solution of ammonium sulphate, which is used as a fertiliser.

Sales Contact: Mr Des Dibley  +44 (0)1366 389650 / Mr Melvyn Jupp +44 (0)1366 389640

Forbes’ range of helically wound high density polyethylene (HDPE – PE 100) tanks with capacities in excess of 100 cubic metres have now been added to the Thames Water purchasing framework. 

Following an investment of £1.7 million in 2013 in a completely new automated plant at their Kelso site, high quality wound tanks have been included in their already extensive range of tanks in a variety of plastic & composite materials which are part of the existing Thames Framework agreement.

Now able to produce seam free tank shells up to 4000mm diameter x 100mm thick, Forbes ‘Krahl tanks have the added advantage of the base plates & roofs being welded by CNC automated equipment ensuring perfect welds.

All tanks are designed & manufactured to BS EN 12573 – 2000. The material of construction HDPE – PE 100 offers exceptional chemical resistance with a design life of 25 years.

The safe storage of hazardous liquids is a perennial challenge facing the water treatment and chemical processing industries – but things could be about to change thanks to a ground-breaking innovation by leading British tank producer Forbes Technologies Ltd.

Following an investment of over £1.7 million at their main manufacturing plant located in the Borders of Scotland at Kelso, Forbes has developed Innatank®. This complete self bunded tank system cleverly combines a chemical storage tank and integral bund within the same structure.

Put more simply, it can be described as a ‘tank within a tank’.

Based on German experience, Innatank® neatly addresses that trio of industry headaches; safety, space and ongoing maintenance requirements.

The new product is produced on the latest automated equipment which gives a seam free cylinder. Specifically designed to protect the environment & personnel from leakage or overfilling of chemical tanks, Innatank®  includes an integral, continual leak monitoring system, thus improving safety further. At the same time inspection requirements are dramatically reduced saving on ongoing operational costs.

Being a self bunded tank, Innatank® does not require any other type of bunding, and can be bolted onto a flat plinth, a task which can be undertaken on delivery. This offers huge cost savings over civil or separate plastic bunding systems.

Meanwhile, the totally sealed bunding system has been designed to prevent ingress of rainwater or any risk of the floatation which is seen with separate bund & tanks systems.

With capacities up to 80 cubic metres, each tank system is manufactured in PE100 High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) or Copolymer Polypropylene using the latest helical winding process and conforms to DVS 2205 & BS EN 12573.

“This latest exciting development is another major step forward in meeting the demands of our already well-established markets. The company is in a fortunate position in being able to invest in R & D to bring this highly cost effective storage solution to market.” stated Managing Director, Melvyn Jupp. “With our latest automated equipment, high quality tanks at very competitive costs makes our unique Innatank® very attractive”. 

Sales contact:  Melvyn Jupp +44 (0) 1366 389640  mjupp@forbesgroup.co.uk

Press contact :  Lee Forbes  +44 (0)1366 386625  lforbes@forbesgroup.co.uk

Forbes solar installation is now complete at their Crimplesham site, and has this week been switched live. The installation has taken around four weeks to complete courtesy of Active Renewables of Evesham, Worcestershire.

The new 205kW output installation consists of a total of 820 ground mounted solar panels. Forbes Group has a large energy demand from their injection moulding machines which run 24/7, and the solar panels will supply up to 100% of the total energy used on site.

Lee Forbes, Company Chairman, explains;

“This investment will not only significantly reduce our carbon footprint, with the rise in electricity costs and our high constant use of electricity, the payback time will be relatively short. The company is continually looking for ways in saving energy. An example of this approach can be seen in our injection mould shop, which has a clever automated control system to maintain the shop floor at a minimum of 20°C using the waste heat generated by the moulding process. Since the development of the injection moulding facility in 2006 we have not required any external heating source such as gas, oil or electricity.”

 

Forbes Technologies Ltd, UK’s largest manufacturer of custom built tank and scrubbers in dual laminate composites and thermoplastics, manufactured and assisted with the installation of a large scrubber manufactured in vinylester glass fibre composite.

The unit which is 4 metres diameter x 12 metres high, is designed to withstand 15,000 pascals negative pressure, resulting in a very thick shell with external stiffening ribs. With the internals the whole structure weighed 11.5 tonnes. The scrubber incorporated a self draining, dished base with an integral ‘skirt’ to allow mounting on a flat support structure.

Tower internals were designed & installed by Forbes, which included the random packing support beams, liquid distributor, pack ring packing media, bed limiter and demister in Halar ECTFE & PVDF.

The extremely arduous duty which removes a large variety of aggressive gases required the entire structure to be post cured in Forbes’ large post curing oven for 12 hours at 96 degrees C.

Forbes Technologies have recently taken Twitter, in order to keep up to date with customers, suppliers and surrounding industries. Follow Forbes now @forbes_group, which can easily be done via the link at the top of this page, for the latest news and product information.

Due to increasing demand, Forbes sister company, The Pall Ring Company, has invested in the latest moulding machine technology, to increase the output of the popular AstraPAK media.

The new machine, installed earlier this month, is the latest BOY 55 tonne injection moulding machine which will increase outputs by up to 30%, due to the faster moulding process. Not only has the machine increased output, it has also reduced power consumption by as much as 35%. This improvement has ensured The Pall Ring Company can still maintain prices, which have seen very little increase since 2009, despite rises in material & energy costs.

The Pall Ring Company now run a total of 7 BOY moulding machines which have given excellent reliability through the years, running 24/7.

Forbes have commissioned Active Renewables of Evesham, Worcestershire to install 205kW output PV panels at their Crimplesham site.

The new installation will involve a total of 820 ground mounted solar panels. Forbes Group has a large energy demand from their injection moulding plant which runs 24/7, 365 days per year, manufacturing pall rings and packing media, and therefore the efficiency of solar energy production is a logical step forward.

Lee Forbes, Company Chairman, explains;

“This investment will not only significantly reduce our carbon footprint, with the rise in electricity costs and our high constant use of electricity, the payback time will be relatively short. The company is continually looking for ways in saving energy. An example of this approach is in the injection moulding shop, which has a clever automated control system to maintain the shop floor at a minimum of 20°C using the waste heat generated by the moulding process. Since the development of the injection moulding facility in 2006 we have not required any external hearing source such as gas, oil or electricity.”

Forbes Kelso manufacturing site in Scotland are also currently installing rainwater harvesting storage tanks to reduce their water consumption with ‘grey’ water being used for a variety of applications within the site. This is in addition to the company’s recycling policy, with all plastic waste and packing materials being separated and sent for recycling. Even broken pallets and scrap wood are given to local people for use in wood burners.

Read more about our processes here.

Forbes Technologies Ltd, UK’s largest custom plastic & composite tank manufacturer was faced with an extremely demanding application, where digestate is pasteurised from a large Mechanical Biological Treatment AD plant. The plant located in the south of England and processes feed stock derived from residual municipal waste and generates electricity.

All six tanks, manufactured in a dual composite of high heat resistant polypropylene & NPG isophthalic glassfibre laminate, have a working capacity of 40 cubic metres and are 2.5 metres diameter with an overall height of 10.4 metres including a conical base. The tank tops incorporated a steel support bridge for a large top mounted slow speed agitator with four one meter diameter blades with the shaft terminating in a foot step bearing in the base of the cone. To aid the agitation process three full height vertical standoff baffles are welded to the internal wall, split to allow for thermal expansion

One major requirement is thermal insulation to permit liquid digestate to enter the tank at 75 degrees Centigrade & to hold the temperature for a given period without any further heating being required.  The tank being constructed in thermoplastic glassfibre laminate assisted in the insulation. To maintain this temperature 100mm thick polyurethane insulation foam covered with a GRP laminate was added externally.

This very physically demanding duty demonstrates the robustness of composite tanks when designed correctly. The combined strength & insulation factors are a big plus point being manufactured throughout in composites.

One of the strengths of Forbes is the range of materials & types of constructions they are able to apply to the construction of tanks, vessels & towers.  The company has dedicated factories for specific types of manufacture including helically wound polyethylene tank up to capacities of 100 cubic metres; composite single & dual laminate tanks & towers in excess of 200 cubic metre capacity & free standing tanks in polypropylene & HDPE from a few litres to 100 cubic metres.

Unlike many plastic fabrication companies, this wide choice of materials & designs allow Forbes to select the correct material & design for your specific application.

Sales contact:  Des Dibley  +44 (0) 1366 389650   email: ddibley@forbesgroup.co.uk

Press contact: Melvyn Jupp +44 (0) 1366 389640  email: mjupp@forbesgroup.co.uk

Forbes Technologies Ltd have completed their first HDPE (PE100) helically spiral wound tank of six, manufactured in their brand new facility which was opened in August. They are now working on a further 5 tanks to the same specification which are on the way to completion, for NXP Semiconductors, who manufacture a wide variety of semi conductor solutions.

Forbes invested £1.8 million in the new production facility which incorporates the latest high efficiency production methods for producing helically spiral wound tanks.The facility has enabled the automated production of tanks & towers up to 4 metres diameter and up to 100,000 litres in thermoplastics.

See our HVT range of helically spiral wound tanks.

Sales Contact: Des Dibley (01366 389650) ddibley@forbesgroup.co.uk

Press Contact: Melvyn Jupp (01366 389640) mjupp@forbesgroup.co.uk