Challenge:
A forest products company has a unique situation in their steam environment. They have a very self contained environment where they use offcuts to power the boiler that produces their steam. The steam in turn provides heat, powers their compressor and even helps in the wood drying process. They need to report their CO2 emissions to the government and had very strict
guidelines to adhere to.
Since 1990 Canada’s forest sector has reduced its GHG emissions by close to 70%. Ensuring failures are caught immediately is essential to ongoing improvements.
Solution:
Pulse Steam Trap Monitors were installed on all steam traps. While installing it was found that one of the steam traps was not working. It was swapped out and monitor installed on new trap however data was still irregular and they quickly ascertained that new trap was not functioning properly and had to be replaced. New trap was installed and worked properly.
They realized that if the monitor had not caught the failure it would have gone undetected for up to 12 months, the usual timeline for their next steam trap survey. Being in such a remote location makes it difficult to get inspections done more frequently. They calculated that emissions saved from that one trap would have significantly impacted their government guidelines making them potentially subject to fines and a poor rating.
"There is no future without addressing climate change and forests are a key component of that"
Benefits:
Forestry suppliers operate in a heavily regulated market and emissions ratings can even be a competitive disadvantage.
They have suffered a lot of bad press over the last few years so have vowed to decarbonize their entire manufacturing and supply chain by 2030 - installing these monitors will help them achieve that goal
They can now schedule annual audits and rest assured that failures will not go undetected between inspections
They can focus on other carbon reductions in order to deliver on their promises