Greater Efficiency & Performance to Atrium Health

The Subject:

Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center is a 304-bed hospital located in Rome, Georgia, that supplies its community with a full range of services. From neonatal intensive care to wound care to hyperbaric therapy to chest pain and more, Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center has it all. They also have steam boilers as a crucial part of their infrastructure, so they’re doing that right, as well. The steam those boilers generate performs two key functions. First, it supplies the heat exchangers that keep the hallways, offices, and patient rooms comfortable. Second, and perhaps most important, that steam provides the sterilization capabilities that help prevent contamination and infection.

Up until 2023, Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center got their steam from a trio of firetube boilers in an attached utility building, including a 500hp Cleaver-Brooks boiler and two 600hp Superior boilers. But in 2023, the hospital realized their boilers were getting old and were starting to lose efficiency. That’s when they decided to upgrade their boilers to not only offer better operating efficiency, but also to operate more quietly and with lower emissions. Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center also realized at that time that their instrumentation and monitoring equipment was starting to show its age and needed an overhaul. Unfortunately, total boiler replacement really wasn’t an option, either.

The Ask

Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center contacted WARE to see about upgrading their boilers to be safer and more efficient and WARE, of course, had the prescription for everything Floyd needed, including the parts, the expertise, and the personnel to get the job done. 

The Solution

WARE recommended to upgrade the boilers in a phased approach, starting in 2023 with the Cleaver-Brooks boiler and then upgrading the Superior boilers one at a time over the next two years.

The Challenge

Even the best projects can face unforeseen challenges, and this one was no different. Initially, there was some difficulty sourcing the necessary equipment on short notice, but WARE made it happen. The next challenge arose during component installation on the Superior boiler, when it was discovered that the clearance in the front was going to make it difficult to route the FGR piping. To solve this issue, WARE used a modular approach. The piping was divided into sections, each connected by flanges and gaskets, so it could be installed properly. This also made it easier for the piping to be removed in the future in case of any maintenance or repair needs.

The second challenge WARE faced involved the butterfly valve in the Superior boiler’s FGR. After initial installation, it was discovered that the FGR valve wasn’t operating through its full range of motion. As it turns out, it was catching on a piping weld, which was then ground down to allow the butterfly valve to move through its full modulation capabilities. 

There was also a small issue with the blower impeller rubbing on the inside of the housing when it was started up during initial testing, but that was easily fixed by simply moving the impeller slightly on its shaft.

How WARE Solved It

WARE got to work, and the Cleaver-Brooks boiler received a much-needed performance upgrade. The two stars of this upgrade were a new dual-fuel Limpsfield burner, and a set of AUTOFLAME controls. To maximize the performance of these two major components, several other upgrades would be done at the same time including modifications to the gas train, feedwater system, and air system. Because the Cleaver-Brooks boiler was specified with a #2 fuel oil system as secondary fuel, modifications would also have to be made to the oil system, as well.

The new Limpsfield burner was an ideal upgrade because of what it would do for boiler efficiency. Thanks to the precision with which it can mix fuel and air (when controlled by an AUTOFLAME system), a Limpsfield burner can create almost 100% combustion with less than

The AUTOFLAME installation was also a smart choice, because if you know WARE, you know we’re big on AUTOFLAME systems for their capability, efficiency, reliability, and precision. By taking hundreds of sensor readings per second, an AUTOFLAME system can monitor the combustion process (including air flow, fuel flow, temperature, stack temperature, and more) and make micro-adjustments to multiple parameters faster than any human could. This means that any boiler controlled by an AUTOFLAME system is running at its most efficient every moment of every hour of every day. For this installation, AUTOFLAME MK8 Controllers were selected.

Beyond that, the additional equipment upgrades to the Cleaver-Brooks consisted of updates to the natural gas train and #2 fuel oil fuel train, a high-pressure oil pump, the addition of a variable-frequency drive to the blower, a differential pressure water level transmitter, and a new feedwater valve. All of which are now monitored by the AUTOFLAME MK8 and displayed on an all-new instrumentation suite.

PHASE TWO

Now that the Cleaver-Brooks boiler has been commissioned, it does everything that Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center had hoped for and more. But it doesn’t do it alone, because when 2024 rolled around, it was time to start on the first Superior boiler. Thanks to WARE, it has now received the same upgrades that the Cleaver-Brooks boiler had installed, including a new Limpsfield dual-fuel burner, an AUTOFLAME MK 8 control system, new instrumentation, an all-new natural gas train, a new #2 fuel oil fuel train, a high-pressure oil pump, a new blower with a variable-frequency drive, a differential pressure water level transmitter, and a new feedwater valve. Both boilers are operating flawlessly and saving Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center money while giving them all the steam they need.

NEXT UP

Two of the three boilers have now been upgraded, and the third is scheduled for its upgrade this year. When that’s complete and all three boilers are completely upgraded, they’ll be operating at greater efficiency and capability than ever. But there’s another cool part to the story, as well. Since they’re all using advanced AUTOFLAME systems, all three boilers will all be able to communicate with one another through a data transfer interface (DTI). By doing so, they’ll be able to work together to get more done for less fuel. So Atrium Floyd Health Medical Center will effectively have three boilers that think and act as one. Isn’t technology amazing?