Big Issues for Industrial Laundries
                                - Airborne Lint and Wasted Heat

It is rare that superbly engineered solutions come along, and rarer still when two come along in the same year. But what is striking is that both of these new solutions have been proven in the industrial laundry sector and both are perfect for these laundry applications. Industrial laundries are characterised firstly as being dusty environments with lots or airborne lint and secondly for using huge amounts of energy, particularly for drying and pressing.  Here we give a brief overview two perfect solutions for the industrial laundry sector. 

Industrial Air Cleaner To Remove Airborne Lint
                                          - The CellFlow Ind SC Range

The processing of fabric in laundries means that there is inevitably an airborne dust issue in the building where the laundry is handled, dried, processed, ironed and folded. This fiberous dust, or lint, is not only a health and safety issue, it also builds up on surfaces where it can potentially dirty otherwise clean laundry. Not only that, but if the laundry processing machines use optics and lasers as part of their control systems then airborne and settling dust can play havoc with the machines by interupting the passage of lightbeams that trigger elements of the machine process. It all adds to rework, downtime and costs.   

The CellFlow Ind  SC air cleaners, manufactured by LightAir in Sweden are making an impact in textile industry environments, including in the industrial laundry sector. There have been a number of successful installations, including Elis Textil Sverige AB, a member of Europe's top Textile and Hygiene Services Group, which has decided to use the Cellflow product to future-proof its workplace. "We at Elis understand the need for air purification and have had it for many years, but with the help of LightAir's connected and smart air cleaners, we are investing in a long-term sustainable work environment for both employees and the business," says Jens Hed, General Manager at Elis Textil. 

The great thing about the Cellflow air cleaners from Lightair is that the large roof hung industrial models are self cleaning. The high efficiency electrostatic filter in the machine has a cunning mechanism which collects the trapped dust from the filter and vacuums it into a dust bag. It means that maintenance is all about changing the dust bag rather than changing the filter. If you think about how easy and cheap it is to change the filter bag on an industrial vacuum cleaner, then you will get the idea.

Another consideration is the cost of electricity for these air cleaners. The efficiency measure we look at is, how many m3 of air can you treat with a single watt of electricity? If you use the CellFlow Ind8500 Ceiling SC the answer is a class-busting 43 m3/watt. Nothing else gets close! 

And just when you think that the Cellflow air cleaners could not get any better - the flow of clean air from a suspended Cellflow unit is vertically downwards. This is brilliant for 2 reasons. It means the laundry staff at floor level will effectivly be in a cone of clean air. Buy it also means that the accumulated warm air from the ceiling level will be destratified as well. Yes, the Cellflow air cleaner also effectivly operates as a destratification fan. 
 

Check out the CellFlow Ind range of industrial air cleaners here

Recover Valuable Heat Energy From Hot, Dirty Exhaust Airflows
                                           - Enjay Contaminated Air Heat Exchangers

Industrial laundries use a lot of heat and a signifficant portion of the heat is typically discharged on as dirty air exhaust to atmosphere. This discharged heat is a huge waste - traditionally it was deemed to be too difficult to recover this heat because of the high levels of moisture and lint in the exhaust airflow. The view was always that it would quickly block a heat exchanger, moreover, the prefiltration equipment needed to preclean the exhaust air to remove the lint was just too expensive and too high maintainance. 

But now there is a heat exchanger specifically for dirty air. The clever bit is that the lint contaminants carried on the dirty air exhaust will mostly just flow through the heat exchanger, meaning that it is resistant to clogging up. This is because the contaminated air heat exchanger from Enjay features a design that they call particle repellent geometry, or, PRG for short.  

In early summer 2023, CWS Workwear in Den Bosch, Netherlands, started a trial to test a new Enjay contaminated air heat exchanger from Sweden in their industrial laundry finisher. Previously, the air, heated to about 80°C and humid, was released without recovering any heat. The trial introduced heat recovery technology to reuse heat transfered from the exhaust and using it to pre-heat the water for two tunnel washers on-site.

The six-month trial aimed to assess energy recovery and cleaning intervals. Results showed significant energy savings, with gas consumption dropping from 0. 019 kWh/kg to 0. 007 kWh/kg, leading to a projected reduction of 50 tons in CO2 emissions within a year. The team found a link between energy savings and cleaning frequency, opting for monthly cleaning instead of the effective three-month schedule to enhance savings while managing cleaning costs, requiring half an hour of staff time. The analysis of the trail demonstrated that the total saving on gas consumpton on the line was 63%. 

Check out the Enjay contaminated air heat exchanger here