Since the mid 1700’s steam has been widely used to provide power to industry – fast forward 300 years from the birth of the Industrial Revolution and dream of a major car manufacturing plant that uses no steam!
That’s exactly what was done at Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd plant in Derbyshire – the home of European built Auris and Avensis Hybrids.
The Facilities department was responsible for producing steam to be used in the pre-treatment of air supplied to the painting booths for the vehicle body and other plastic components. Additionally Toyota facility team has been responsible for maintaining the three large steam generation boilers for the last 25 years!
The project started back in 2010, soon Toyota UK Facilities and Environment Department realized they could not do this alone and engaged in an extensive programme with multiple stakeholders on a global scale.
The dream was to convert the plants Air Supply House from steam to water spray humidification:
- - Introduction of the new highly efficiency gas burners.
- - Conversion of the plant’s Paint shop to gas burner from steam heating.
- - Conversion of Paint shop phosphate tank heating from steam to a ‘Low pressure hot water boiler’.
- - Conversion of the plants Paint shops Topcoat and Primer production lines.
Step by step, with meticulous planning, teamwork and quality checks, five years after the initial dream Toyota UK decommissioned the boilers and went steam-less!
The elimination of steam demand at Toyota UK reduced the site Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 8200 tonnes per year (that’s the equivalent of nearly 550 UK family homes CO2 emissions each year).
However, the story continues, the redundant boilers have been sold and are destined for a new home in Pakistan.
If you thought the programme to get the boilers out of Toyota UK was an epic feat, can you imagine the logistics involved to get them to Asia!
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