CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. — 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).
