Global Project Engineering

Today is a special day as it’s my son’s 17th birthday! I’m taking a few days off from my efforts to save energy and lower carbon emissions to enjoy some wonderful family time skiing in Ischgl, Austria. It's truly one of my favorite skiing destinations, the views are mind blowing 🤯 Although I’m always open to suggestions for other fantastic ski resorts? Rest assured, I’ll return to what I do best (which isn’t skiing 😆) next week!

We recently completed the first phase of a Cleanroom HVAC optimisation project at a leading global life sciences facility. The project centred on implementing an air change reduction strategy across several ISO 5 and ISO 7 Cleanrooms, delivering exceptional results: Air Change Reduction: Reduced fan filter unit energy consumption. Weekend Setback: Introducing a weekend setback strategy, further reducing fan filter unit energy usage. Pressure Cascade Optimisation: Rebalanced fresh air distribution, achieving significant reductions in AHU fan power and DX heating/cooling energy consumption. Overall, the project delivered an impressive 51% energy saving and was completed within just five days. Final particle count testing returned excellent results, achieving less than 2.8% of the 0.5µm limit and 12% of the 1.0µm limit, fully compliant with ISO 14644-1:2015 standards for air cleanliness by particle concentration. We are immensely proud to support these impactful changes and contribute to building a greener, more sustainable future.

The year has started on a busy and exciting note! Following on from Iceland last week, our team travelled to Germany to conduct an energy assessment for a globally renowned blue-chip life sciences company. The site visit proved to be highly successful, identifying a number of opportunities that will deliver a 15% reduction in total site energy consumption and a 7% decrease in carbon emissions through optimisation of five cleanroom HVAC systems, with minimal investment required. A heat pump solution was also identified that repurposes reject heat from the chillers and process hot water systems to produce hot water at 70ºC. This innovative approach is projected to deliver a 500-tonne CO2 reduction, cutting the site’s Scope 2 emissions by an impressive 85%. We are incredibly proud to support such impactful changes and contribute to building a greener, more sustainable future.

Last week, my colleague and I had the incredible opportunity to visit the Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant in Iceland. It was a truly eye-opening experience and a profound reminder of nature’s raw power. Geothermal energy in Iceland meets more than 90% of the country’s heating demand, showcasing its remarkable contribution to sustainable energy solutions. During initial drilling trials, temperatures below ground as high as 450ºC were recorded. The Hellisheidi plant is one of the world’s ten largest geothermal power facilities. It harnesses hot fluids from 44 production wells, drilled to depths ranging from 1,000 to 2,200 metres. The plant uses 180ºC steam to power six high-pressure (7.5 bar) TOSHIBA turbines, each generating 45 MW, and one low-pressure (1.0 bar) turbine that produces 33 MW. Combined, these turbines generate an impressive 2,300 GWh of electricity annually. Additionally, lower-grade heat is utilised to produce 200 MW of hot water at 80ºC, which is supplied to Reykjavik via district heating pipelines stretching over 20 kilometres. The plant also employs an innovative carbon capture and storage solution called Carbfix. This process injects a carbonated water mixture into basaltic bedrock, where it reacts with metals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron. This reaction transforms CO2 into stable carbonate minerals, effectively locking it underground. Since 2014, Carbfix has successfully injected over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 using this method.