Smart Water System

Malisko Engineering, Inc. was chosen to design and install an "on-demand" water heating system to supply hot water to hose stations and utility sinks at a national aluminum can manufacturing plant.  The plant project team required an eco-friendly approach to utilize heating sources already available in the facility. 

Existing System:

  • The plant had previously relied on a separate natural gas boiler to heat incoming city water.
  • The standalone boiler system was unreliable, costly to operate and maintain, and did not provide consistent temperature control.

Our Design Approach:

  • Utilize a plate-and-frame heat exchanger to heat incoming city water with existing 250°F boiler water.
  • Temperature, pressure, and flow indicators installed on the discharge side of the heat exchanger.
  • PID-controlled modulating valve installed on the boiler water supply side of the heat exchanger.
  • Flow Switch installed on discharge side of heat exchanger for system demand detection.
  • HMI designed with operator-selectable temperature set point along with in-process temperature and pressure indication.
  • System shutdown alarms programmed for High Temperature and High Pressure conditions.

Startup:

  • Main boiler supply and return lines were hot-tapped to avoid costly downtime.
  • Skid delivered partially pre-assembled to reduce onsite installation time.
  • 90% of the new piping was pre-fabricated.
  • PID and flow detection tuning accomplished under low, medium, and high demand periods.
  • Process piping was painted, insulated, and labeled to match existing.

The Malisko Impact:

  • Plant Maintenance personnel and operators alike saw superior system performance immediately following startup.
  • The water was consistently hot and provided adequate temperature control in all ranges of demand.
  • This system was designed with scalability in mind, thus providing the plant with future expansion capacity for other hot water systems.
  • Anticipated project payback is less than 1 year due to decreased energy usage (natural gas), increased operator productivity, and decreased maintenance time.