Steam traps are a crucial element in manufacturing plants which utilize boilers for heat and process operations.
They remove condensate from the steam pipes and keep the steam within the system. A faulty pipe can cost a manufacturer plenty in energy, emissions and financial expense, not to mention the most important thing, safety.
Beer producer Anheuser-Busch, like many in the food and beverage industry, has struggled with both monitoring the steam traps and replacing them in a cost-effective and timely manner. For those powered by batteries, replacing them can be $500-$1,000 per battery, plus hundreds used up and deposited in landfills every year.
Barkley Edison, steam systems manager with the brewing company, would do a manual audit annually.
“If you go into a single brewery, you might find seven different types of steam trap monitors, all dead, because they required batteries,” Edison said in a story about the project on solutions firm EverActive’s website.
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Anheuser-Busch operates 12 flagship breweries in the U.S., and steam trap monitoring and renewal is a major issue. The company opted to try a new solution with the battery-less EverActive Steam Trap Monitoring (STM) at its Cartersville, Ga., brewery.
Eventually, Anheuser-Busch deployed the solution on 25 percent of its steam traps. The result, according to the companies was a 1.2-percent reduction in energy use.
Maybe as importantly, they noted, it reduced carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 7,561 metric tons per year, equivalent to taking more than 1,600 vehicles off the road.
Click here for more on the Anheuser-Busch and EverActive story.
Anheuser-Busch has ambitious near-term sustainability goals. The company plans to source 100 percent of its purchased electricity from zero-carbon renewables and reduce CO2 emissions 25 percent, all by 2025.
