Sustaining momentum

2 December 2021



Sustainable laundries need to be efficient across the board – from machinery through workflow and best practice in all areas to utilities consumption


ENERGY CONSERVATION IS THE MISSION

This year Girbau, which is on a mission to cut emissions and improve laundry efficincies, has been working with the industrial supplier SMC to optimise the energy efficiency of its ironing lines, with what it reports are excellent results that allow its customers to save up to 30% on energy consumption and 25% on air consumption.

Girbau equipment features the latest technology for energy saving, recirculation and making the best use of water, to reduce the water footprint and environmental impact in all washing and drying processes. In this respect, the company worked with Tecnolav Sustentable, a laundry in Argentina, on an expansion enabling it to boost its throughput from 300 kg to 20 tonnes of linen a day. Installing the Girbau machinery was a resounding success: the laundry managed to cut energy costs and significantly boost the profitability of the business, as well as production figures. In total, water consumption fell by 70%, chemicals used in the processes by 30%, gas by 20% and steam by 10% on the premises.

In the Covid-19 context the company has also focused all its efforts on providing solutions to guarantee proper disinfection of linen, in order to protect people’s health. This is why it developed its pioneering DMP (Disinfection Monitoring Package), designed specifically to ensure hygiene and disinfection in laundries, and forged an alliance with the Swiss company HeiQ, enabling Girbau to begin to offer our clients HeiQ Viroblock, an antiviral and antimicrobial textile technology that has proven its effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus behind Covid-19), designed for industrial laundry facilities in the healthcare, hospitality and food industries.

Finally, the company is making a major effort to contribute to the circular economy with projects like Clint, the result of a collaboration between Girbau LAB and the Elisava design school. Clint is a versatile, recyclable new material made from the textile waste that is left in the filters of dryers.

OFF-GRID BIOLPG CAN PRODUCE 81% CARBON SAVINGS

Water heater manufacturer Rinnai recently completed a detailed report into possible savings of 81% on carbon emissions if offgrid sites convert to using BioLPG as the main fuel source for water heating.

BioLPG is conceptually renewable and sustainable, as it is made from a blend of waste, residues and sustainably sourced materials. BioLPG can be described as an eco-propanem as the chemical makeup of this gas is identical to LPG and is therefore compatible with existing in situ LPG products from a combustion perspective.

BioLPG is a co-product of the biodiesel production process. In the manufacturing process, feedstocks undergo a series of complex treatments. They are combined with hydrogen in a process, called hydrogenolysis, which separates and purifies their energy content. During the refining procedure, a variety of waste gases are produced that contain BioLPG. For every tonne of biodiesel, around 50 kg of BioLPG is produced from this gas stream. This co-product is then purified to make it identical to conventional propane. The carbon factors associated with BioLPG used for this report are 0.0487 kgCO2e/kWh.

The Rinnai report highlights several off-grid building envelopes that can benefit from high efficiency LPG fired water heaters and compares the carbon footprint from an energy transition perspective. The transition focuses on the carbon savings that can be achieved by shifting from oil heating systems to LPG and then upgrading LPG to Bio-LPG.

The applications are modelled for the report using hot water intensive buildings in the off-grid leisure and hospitality sector.

Report author Chris Goggin says: “This report sets out to establish the environmental impact of a transition in energy types within typical off-grid high volume DHW applications. The energy transition focused on dominant off-grid energy sources namely oil, LPG and BioLPG.

“The report set out to establish the possible reductions in carbon emissions if this energy transition was used to support widespread decarbonisation in an off-grid setting. The results demonstrate that there is potential for widespread decarbonisation whilst also providing an economical and technically feasible solution for consumers.

‘Where LPG is already used the incumbent water heating technology can still be used in the future when BioLPG switching is available. This would make use of the existing fuel infrastructure and heating technology which would lead to the potential for both capital and operational expenditure savings for end users.

LOCAL AND GLOBAL EXPERTISE

An efficient laundry is a sustainable laundry and many businesses are turning to expert consultants to achieve this aim. Set up in the 1990s by Dr Richard Neale, LTC Worldwide has evolved and diversified in recent years. It has long been the leading consultancy to the UK laundry industry – and beyond as its name indicates – providing training, consultancy and textile testing services to laundries, the clients of laundries and the laundry supply chain. Dr Neale contributes the regular Material Solutions feature in LCNi on behalf of LTC Worldwide.

The process of evolution gained momentum in 2007 when Steve Anderton, pictured, the current managing director, joined the business. Anderton brought a wealth of knowledge in the areas of on-premises laundry (OPL), NVQs and healthcare sectors to the business.

The evolution continued when Stuart Boyd joined the business in 2011. Boyd brought his extensive knowledge of the industry to LTC from his work in managing laundries in both the public and private sectors, delivering courses in FE and providing technical services suppling detergent to laundries.

Last year during the pandemic the business had to evolve further due to the challenging economic conditions, like much of the industry, which lead to Boyd and Anderton making the decision to relocate the business to Chorley Business and Technology Centre and to review all as aspects of the business.

This review resulted in LTC welcoming Robin Highfield to the team. Highfield has over 30 years of textile knowledge and experience gained in the areas of quality and purchasing management for several textile suppliers.

Although each team member has a particular specialisation there is a great deal of cross-over and on many occasions there are in-depth conversation over many issues such as a stained or damaged table cloth, or the potential a laundry may have for improvement.

Anderton specialises in the implementation of EN14065 Laundry processed textiles – biocontamination control system. He sits on the Middle East Chapter of the TRSA Advisory Board and is Treasurer to The Society of Hospital Linen Service and Laundry Managers. Steve is the first point of contact for OPL laundry and EN14065.

Meanwhile, Boyd is leading the provision of training, education and mentoring and provides much of the technical training offered by the TSA as well as bespoke courses used by many leading launderers. He also specialises in EN14065, is adept at microbiological sampling and his extensive experience in healthcare and detergent supply and management. Stuart’s experience in most aspects of the laundry world means that he is the first point of contact for laundry consultancy.

Highfield’s focus is primarily on textile testing and if providing increasing support to all aspects of LTC both internally and in the field. His recent initiatives have resulted in a streamlined of the textile testing systems thus increasing the testing capability to the business.

ENERGY CONSERVATION IS THE MISSION
OFF-GRID BIOLPG CAN PRODUCE 81% CARBON SAVINGS
LOCAL AND GLOBAL EXPERTISE


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