ELGA Process Water has just completed the cleaning and filling of over 5km of hot water system piping in a new building at Nottingham's Big Wood School. Big Wood is one of the first to benefit under the Building Schools for the Future programme, a major government initiative aimed at rebuilding or refurbishing every secondary school in the UK using technology that has long term sustainability. Their new building, which opened in September 2009, has a new Energy Centre powered by Pure Plant Oil (rape seed oil). The Energy Centre was built by LowC, the renewable energy solutions provider.
ELGA Process Water, part of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, worked closely with LowC to develop a sustainable solution for treating the closed hot water circuit which takes hot water from the new combined heat and power plant to heat the building. To ensure that no water-side problems reduce the system efficiency, the 5km long piping system was cleaned and flushed and then filled with 60,000 litres of high purity deionised water from one of ELGA Process Water's Aquamove MoFi mobile deionisation units.
Corrosion inhibiting chemicals from ELGA Process Water's comprehensive Hydrex® range were added and the system was sealed. But the best closed systems lose a small amount of water over the course of time and it is essential for the long term sustainability of the system that these small losses are replaced with deionised water. For this purpose there is a make-up water plant consisting of two ELGA Process Water Service DI (SDI) exchange cylinders which produce deionised water on site from mains water. When the SDI cylinders are exhausted - after about a year - they are simply replaced with new ones and taken to ELGA Process Water's factory for regeneration. With the cylinder exchange programme, no waste products are produced on site making the school safe and environmentally friendly.
For more information on LowC, the renewable energy solutions provider, please see their website at: www.lowc.co.uk