HRS Heat Exchangers, based in the UK, has provided Cory Environmental with a customised thermal transfer solution to assist in waste treatment and energy production at their Anaerobic Digestion plant in Weston-super-Mare, UK.

Cory Environmental is one of the UK’s leading recycling, waste management and energy recovery companies. The Weston-super-Mare Plant provides services to residents throughout North Somerset.

At the Weston-super-Mare plant waste feedstocks are treated in an anaerobic digester to breakdown the biodegradable material and produce methane gas. Once captured, the gas is used to generate green electricity which is fed into the National Grid providing benefit to the local community and the environment. The remaining product (digestate) can also be used as a fertiliser, reducing overall waste destined for landfill.

HRS DTI heat exchangers are ideal for heating sludge in anaerobic digesters as the corrugated tubes provide an internal tube profile that inhibits fouling tendencies and increases the rate of heat transfer. Fouling or snagging of waste particles is prevented by having no change in cross-sectional area along the length of the heat exchanger and the increased turbulence from the corrugation improves heat transfer efficiency. This increased efficiency results in a shorter length to meet the required thermal duty offering a more compact and effective design with a smaller footprint.

For this order, four DTI heat exchangers are used for a combination of digester and process tank heating and for digestate heating to achieve pasteurisation. The units are mounted on one common, boxed stainless steel frame. The precisely engineered, compact solution features stainless steel cladding over the frame and connections for each unit protruding from the cladding. HRS also supplied a plate heat exchanger for the main CHP heat circuit, in order to optimise the efficiency of the main heat exchangers. 

Alistair Holl, director at Cory Environmental, commented, “We are committed to investigating ways of managing carbon more effectively. This new system from HRS will help towards protecting our environment and ensuring we optimise plant efficiency, providing a sustainable operation for the future.”