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Kroger Co.’s (NYSE: KR) K.B. Specialty Foods new anaerobic wastewater treatment system at its facility in Greensburg, Indiana is fully operational.  The previous wastewater treatment system in the facility was open to the air. The new system features a dome that captures biogas from food byproducts at the plant so the collected biogas can now be harnessed to generate electricity.

“This is one more step toward meeting our goal of becoming a zero waste company by 2020,” said Suzanne Lindsay –Walker, Kroger’s director of sustainability.  (Source: Kroger Co, 2016 PR Newswire) 

In this video of the biogas system overview, ADI Systems Process Engineer, Daniel Bertoldo, demonstrates how the new facility relies on a process called anaerobic digestion.  Microorganisms will transform the byproducts of food production into biogas, and that biogas is extracted and scrubbed for a source of renewable energy.  The electricity created will be sent to the plant’s electrical grid.

KB Specialty Foods Plant Engineer Eric Behn said this investment “represents KB Specialty Foods’ continued commitment to both the Greensburg community and energy sustainability.”

The state-of-the-art waste water treatment facility was designed, built and installed by ADI Systems North America, an Evoqua Company. Universal Blower Pac engineered and manufactured the biogas blower system and hybrid blower systems for the sequencing batch reactor.

The 3C-Hybrid Blower System continues to make waves in the water and waste water treatment marketplace as a best in class, high efficiency system that is both affordable and delivered quickly.  This year, UBP  was thrilled to be one of the recipients for Water and Wastes Digest (W&WD) Top Project 2017 Awards for the water treatment plant upgrade for the City of Wheeling, West Virginia.

One of the biggest challenges for the contractors was meeting the city’s tight budget. “Any rate increase presents a challenge for customers in a financially strained community such as Wheeling,” said Craig Juday, P.E., project manager and vice president for CT Consultants Inc.  CT Consultants chose UBP  to customize the 3C-Hybrid blower system to meet the plant’s requirements and budget.  ‘As a custom blower manufacturer, we offer designs our competitors don’t or simply can’t provide,’ says Jay Guio, UBP  OEM Sales Representative. ‘This often times leads to a more efficient system for the end user.’

Mike Rice, the Maintenance Foreman for Wheeling’s plant, commented, ‘Our previous blowers were from 1964. They were very inefficient and parts were hard to find, some we had to make.   With the new 3C-Hybrids, we have noticed a higher energy efficiency since installation, less noise and easier maintenance.  There has been no issues with these units and working with people in your parts department has been a breeze.’

UBP  thanks all the contractors and consultants involved in the project, and a big congratulations to the City of Wheeling for demanding excellence in providing quality drinking water for their community.

To download a data sheet for the 3C-Hybrid, please visit our Resource Center.

To read more about this Top Project 2017 award from Water and Wastes Digest, click here.

UBP announces yet another major expansion to their manufacturing facility. ‘We are excited to show our clients and staff how our vision to be the best and most innovative blower system supplier continues to grow not only with our square footage, but also with our holistic approach to improve both solutions and services,’ says Natalie Menke, President of UBP. Stay tuned for progress and more updates later
this fall!

OSHA’s hearing conservation program is designed to protect workers with significant occupational noise exposures in various industry sectors from hearing impairment even if they are subject to such noise exposures over their entire working lifetimes.  All employers are required to implement a Hearing Conservation Program where workers are exposed to a time weighted average noise level of 85 dBA or higher over an 8 hour work shift.

Blower systems with sound enclosures installed at Altamonte Springs, FL WWTP

As a market leader in blower system engineering and manufacturing, Universal Blower Pac naturally understands this impact on plant managers and how best to control noise exposure for system operators. As a result, UBP has been providing state of the art sound enclosure solutions for a variety of blower systems and industrial equipment since 1979. We manufacture both standard, semi-standard and custom enclosures to help meet OSHA requirements on any budget, whether we provided the original blower system to you or not.

ATTENU-PAC: Full Enclosure, Standard Designs with Custom Benefits
The ATTENU-PAC is a full sound enclosure solution and comes in variety of sizes with various options. Choose from standard sizes, or engineers can make sizing adjustments to get exact fit.

>> Can achieve 25-30dBA sound reduction
>> Choose from hinged or removable panels with full doors on one or both faces
>> Designed with heavy 16-gauge steel combined with high density foam
>> Engineered for extreme weather conditions (heavy snow and corrosive environments). Treated with galvanneal and powder coated
>> Vent boxes remove direct line of noise
>> Door handles are designed with compression lathes to ensure tight closures and minimize noise escape
>> Extended oil drain options for easy maintenance along with 80% door coverage for easy access
>> Standard enclosures can be modified to fit on-site equipment

ACOUSTI-PAC: Partial Enclosure, Meet OSHA for 30% Less Cost

UBP has mastered the ability to reach acceptable noise levels with the ACOUSTI-PAC partial enclosure. This achieves up to 60% noise reduction of the ATTENU-PAC for 30% of the cost. The enclosure is designed to compactly fit around the blower, the loudest noise source. We then acoustically treat the discharge based upon frequency ranges to minimize the secondary noise sources.
>> Engineered with the same quality materials and options that the ATTENU-PAC offers, just smaller
>> Can achieve up to 15 dBA sound reduction to meet 85 dBA site requirements
>> Blower is fitted with oil and fill drain extensions for easy maintenance

CUSTOM ENCLOSURES: Exact Fit for New or Current In-place Equipment

Our enclosures are designed to meet whatever difficult site issues, sizing, or specialty application desired. Enclosures can be designed to be lowered over existing equipment by forklift or crane or pre-built panels to be installed on site around the equipment.

Custom enclosures can be designed for any type of equipment or blowers from multi-stage centrifugal to direct drive designs. A variety of options of materials and specialty features can be requested: larger vent box designs for increased airflow, removable doors or roofs, clam shell design for full walk around access, and much more.

UBP Engineers are available for site visits to help advise on specialty sizing or installation issues and make recommendations on how best to achieve OSHA requirements for any equipment.

The best manufacturers tirelessly seek out valuable relationships that become more than just equipment providers; they seek trusted partners who share the same goals for success.  For Universal Blower Pac, this has always been our goal: meet and exceed the end user’s needs and expectations for every project.  We’ve found that this is one of the keys to growing the valuable relationships we have with numerous engineering and manufacturing firms who, in turn, call on us to do the same for their clients.

In a recent customer visit to Cloacina (located in Arroyo Grande, CA), Jay Guio, UBP OEM Sales REP, met with Troy Ellison, CEO of Cloacina LLC. Following that visit, the Cloacina Team surprised us with this vendor highlight video spotlighting the value of building a trusted partnership.  “One of the things that have impressed me with Universal Blower Pac is the fact that they are willing to work with us in regards to pushing the envelope,” says Ellison. “This showed us that they were willing to jump as high as we were being asked to jump by our clients. And it’s nice knowing someone is as equally invested in your success as you are.”

As many cities around the country face new state and federal standards that demand higher regulations for their municipal facilities, the City of Kirksville, Missouri Wastewater Treatment Plant prepares to undergo new improvements to ensure compliance with the tougher standards.

The plant improvements have three major phases including headwork’s and flow control, biological treatments, and solids handling with a total cost for the project around $18 million and began in the spring of 2015.

The engineer of record is HDR Engineering. The general contractor awarded the project is River City Construction. Universal Blower Pac’s representative is Ressler & Associates.  Universal Blower Pac is providing five tri-lobe blower systems to service the post aeration basins.

SOLUTION PROVIDED

Each blower provides up to 2560 SCFM at 10.5 PSIG on a VFD. The tri-lobe blowers are direct coupled with 250HP motors in ATTENU-PAC enclosures.

EXPECTED RESULTS

• Direct drive design provides up to 5% energy savings versus v-belt driven blowers at the design point
• Direct drive design eliminates belt maintenance and replacement
• Up to 60% energy savings due to VFD control versus a constant speed system
• Up to 25 dba noise reduction with the ATTENU-PAC full enclosure design

Through the years, Universal Blower Pac’s customer care and service department has answered numerous calls concerning a variety of installation, operation and maintenance questions around best practices for handling blower systems.  With the goal of continuing to be not only a well respected blower system engineering and manufacturing provider, we are also consistently dedicated to meeting our clients needs at a deeper level for service, troubleshooting and repair.

As a result, our service team is rolling out a Blower System Maintenance video series to help answer the variety of standard operation and maintenance questions.  The series will include handling, installation, start-up, lubrication, typical troubleshooting tips and tricks, and much more.

The first in this video series is proper Unloading and Handling Procedures for Blower Systems.  In this video, we discuss the importance of checking thoroughly for freight damage that may occur during shipping and how best to capture and describe this on the Bill of Lading to expedite any shipping claims.  It is also important to note how best to lift the different blower system steel frame styles that Universal Blower Pac engineers for their systems.  This video clearly shows best practices for lifting an EXPII style base, a 3C-PAC or 3C-Hybrid base, larger multistage centrifugal or custom blower systems with sub-base fork lift slots or lifting lugs, and even how best to lift systems that come with acoustical sound enclosures.

If you would like to see a certain maintenance video walk-through, please email our service team at Service@universalblowerpac.com and we will gladly discuss adding it to our list.

In this video, Ben Cross, P.E, Universal Blower Pac Sales Engineer, discusses the new High Pressure Hybrid Blower System.  This high efficiency system features Gardner Denver’s RC3 CycloBlower, a new generation of high pressure oil free screw blowers with airflows up to 2,650 CFM, pressures up to 36 psi, and vacuum up to 22 inches of mercury making it is ideal for a wide range of applications including Wastewater Treatment, dilute and dense phase Pneumatic Conveying, Chemical Processing, Industrial Processing, Food Processing, and Plastic Molding and Handling.

This hybrid design is engineered with the goal of delivering a new level of efficiency and performance that will provide our customers with competitive advantages and energy savings they won’t find in other blower systems. With energy consumption typically being the largest cost of ownership, UBP’s High Pressure Hybrid Blower System can save thousands on energy bills, lowering your bottom line, and increasing profits.

As with all Universal Blower Pac solutions, this system can be engineered with flexible options and installation configurations to meet exact needs.

Cloacina LLC, a California based manufacturer and purveyor of packaged wastewater treatment plants and equipment, knows and has served the wine industry for years. “Wineries are unique industrial clients that not only require quality equipment that is easy to maintain, they also need it to meet the high aesthetic standards demanded by the industry,” says Troy Ellison, Cloacina’s GMO and founding partner.“ Additionally, they run on irregular fiscal cycles, which means equipment orders tend to be rushed and carry tight deadlines for installation and start-up prior to crush.”

CHALLENGE

The previous blower system manufacturer was struggling to meet the quick turnaround times needed for Cloacina’s clients. “Not only was the lead time slow to get the equipment,” said Ellison, “but engineering was slow to respond too, and we could not stand by delays that created unnecessary down time.” Cloacina quickly determined the need for a blower system manufacturer that provided not only quality and value, but fast delivery and response from engineering through to servicing.

Another requirement was that the blower systems should not only be modular solutions that could be scaled, but that those solutions could be easily customized per a client’s exact needs without slowing down the delivery timeframe or driving up the costs too much.

SOLUTION

After a lengthy selection process, it was determined that Universal Blower Pac’s 3C-PAC blower system was the best solution overall to meet the demands for Cloacina’s clients. The 3C-PAC is a standard high performing, fully enclosed, compact blower system that is engineered for easy maintenance, indoor or outdoor conditions, flexible options and sizes for various installation needs. “We saw that Universal Blower Pac’s approach to engineering was similar to ours, said Ellison. “They are willing to push the envelope and step outside the standard comfort zone to allow for some customization without delivery delays or ridiculous upgrade fees. We felt they were focused on solutions for the end user’s goals, which is what we value as well.”

RESULTS

Ellison stated, “At a wastewater facility located in Santa Rosa, CA, we’ve already seen a considerable drop in energy use with over 50% electrical savings since the 3C-PACs were installed. Also prior, the operators could not walk into the room without ear protection. With the 3C-PAC, noise is a non-issue.” Ellison mentioned the best compliment came recently from Rob Miller, the project engineer at the San Antonio Winery in Paso Robles, when he was giving them an overview of their newly installed membrane bio-reactor system. “We were standing just a few feet from the blower system and when I mentioned it was running, he turned in shock and said he didn’t even notice is was on.” Beyond the high performance of the 3C-PAC, the “real value for us has been the fast response time from Universal Blower Pac in every part of the process from delivery through servicing,” said Ellison. “If I email them a question at midnight, I’ve found that the response is usually in my in-box by the morning. It’s just nice working with another family owned business that upholds the same values of doing what it takes to meet and understand the challenges of the end user.”