Pitfield Street Mixed Development
Sector: Residential and commercial
Building: New build flats and retail space
Products: Ensbury pressure jet boiler, Chesil pressurisation unit
Application: Space heating. Renewable energy
Hamworthy’s Ensbury LT 260 steel boiler using B100 biodiesel and a high/low three-phase Dunphy burner specifically matched to the fuel was specified for the project by M&E consultants Fox Curtis Murray to provide the space heating for this city centre development consisting of 16 flats and a commercial unit.
Due to the city centre location of the development, the London Borough of Hackney’s Pollution Control Section of the Planners insisted on the provision of a site specific dispersion modelling impact assessment which would identify any problems the proposed system may cause to surrounding properties, particularly a block of residential flats located close to the flue discharge point.
The report, which was commissioned from Enteck UK Ltd, used the ADMS 4.2 advanced atmospheric dispersion model that has been developed and validated by Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC) to predict the ground level concentration of combustion products emitted to atmosphere from the boiler when burning biodiesel. The conclusions drawn from the assessment were that the emissions from burning biodiesel were unlikely to have a significant impact on local air quality and did not exceed the Air Quality Standard for both NO2 and PM10.
Hackney Pollution Control accepted this report and gave Fox Curtis Murray permission to use biodiesel as the boiler’s fuel. The report in fact showed this fuel to be superior to the biomass solution which the planners had originally wanted. Biodiesel is a cleaner fuel than biomass because there is no grit or other particular matter in the flue gasses plus the storage space required is much less with liquid biofuel – ideal for a city centre location where storage is limited and space is at a premium.
John Moore Operations Director from Mulalley – the main contractors on the project commented,
“Working with Hamworthy Heating on this project ensured the installation went smoothly and kept to projected timescales.”
The biofuel for the boiler is stored in the plant room at ground floor level in a double skinned bunded steel tank and deliveries are expected on a bi-monthly frequency.
Geoff Fox, Director, from Fox Curtis Murray said,
“Liquid biofuel presents a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels and also qualifies for the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme which reduces the actual fuel costs accordingly. The biodiesel for the boiler was sourced locally and conforms to EN14213. Buying this fuel on the open market is problematical due to the relatively small quantities required however more suppliers are coming on line as more biofuel boilers are being installed.”
The Ensbury low temperature high efficiency 260kW boiler installed at Pitfield Street permits close load matching, low NOx emissions and is designed for operating at low flow conditions with the ability to accommodate fluctuating temperature and load conditions. A Hamworthy Wessex ModuMax condensing boiler was supplied as a standby boiler for service or maintenance periods plus a Chesil wall mounted pressurisation unit with matched expansion vessel ensures the correct pressure is prevalent in the system to reach the highest heating point in the building.
Hamworthy’s Ensbury LT, Melbury C and Melbury HE steel boilers are all suitable for use with liquid biofuel to make available a further renewable energy choice to customers that will significantly help combat diminishing oil reserves and facilitate the government in reaching its carbon reduction targets.