Buyers Guide 2023

30 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk Annual Buyers’ Guide 2023 Energy & Environmental Management Focus on: Boilers, Burners & Controls University highlights significant savings from VSRT installation The University of East Anglia (UEA) has used steam boilers from Fulton for many years, but even the University was surprised at how efficient the installation of new VSRT boilers proved to be when it replaced ageing plant. PWE reports. W ith steam being essential to the University and used extensively for humidification purposes – to ensure that the appropriate environmental conditions of 55% to 65% RH are maintained – and for the autoclaving of equipment and waste, any installation needed a form of redundancy in place from the outset. Installed in 2004 and handed over to the facilities team in 2005, the University’s original installation therefore featured three J Series boilers, allowing for two to cope with daily requirement and the third as a standby for when steam demand was high or during servicing and maintenance schedules on the other boilers. UEA Estates Project Lead, Philip Page, commented: “Even during the original planning phases for the boiler plant room we knew that floorspace, headroom and access was going to be limited. With horizontal firetubes out of the question and many vertical boilers at the time requiring almost double the height of the boiler itself for maintenance purposes, Fulton’s J Series was the perfect solution. “Fast forward to when we started the replacement programme for the J Series a review revealed that things, in the most part, hadn’t changed in the boiler market and no other boiler that could fit within the plant room was as capable or efficient. We therefore put the programme on hold.” Replacement programme Thankfully for the University, when the time did come to complete the replacement programme, a market review in 2019 revealed that Fulton had just launched its all-new VSRT, the most radical change to vertical steam boiler design since the company pioneered the vertical tubeless boiler back in 1949; and the world’s first fully wetted, refractory-free vertical tubeless boiler. The compact footprint of the VSRT also meant it was a perfect fit for the existing plant room. Available with outputs from 160 to 960 kg/h, the VSRT boasts ultra-low NOx emissions of less than 20ppm, achieved thanks to the VSRT’s combustion technology that features a modulating burner and furnace that have been