Regain Polymers cuts £50,000 on energy costs 07 September 2012

Regain Polymers, of Castleford, West Yorkshire, is set to save nearly £50,000 a year on energy costs, following installation of an ABB industrial drive to one of its extruders.

The firm, which is one of the largest plastic recyclers in the UK, processing 50,000 tonnes a year, turns waste materials into new pellets for manufacturing products such as water pipes and wheelie bins.

Ian Fenwick, asset care manager for the plant, explains that Regain had identified one of its extruder lines as a prime candidate for energy reduction.

It was based on a 400kW dc motor and the company wanted to convert it to ac operation, partly for the energy savings, but also to eliminate the need to replace the dc brushes every three months.

ABB Drives Alliance member Quantum Controls investigated the potential, using a data logger and established that daytime electricity costs for the dc motor were £424.

Quantum fitted a 400kW ABB ac four-pole squirrel cage motor and variable-speed drive, together with new mains cable – and energy costs dropped to £260 a day, meaning an annual saving of £49,000.

That's equivalent to an energy reduction of nearly 870,000 kWh per year, as well as saving more than 488 tonnes of CO2.

The ac motor runs at the same speed as the previous dc motor, with savings coming from the improved torque ratio and efficiency of the ac drive and motor.

"Quantum estimated that we would get a 20% energy saving from the project and we are getting above this figure with the ac motor and drive fitted," comments Fenwick. "So we are more than pleased with the project."

Brian Tinham

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