This Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical company’s Spring House campus condenser water loop is supported by six (6) cooling towers, four (4) of which were original construction to the CUP Plant. Due to dropping efficiency and overall age of wearable components, cooling tower overhaul was necessary. The refurbishment option was chosen in lieu of full replacement due logistical difficulties. Replacement of all existing cooling tower wearable parts including PVC fill, sheaves, bushings, shafts, bearings, belts, nozzles, and motors to provide 95% efficiency. Cells 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 were isolated and performed separately to maintain adequate capacity in the system. All work was completed with no disruption to active facility operations.
Following replacement of the four (4) original cooling towers, this Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical company proceeded with assessment of the remaining cells. These units were also determined to be operating well below original design capacity. Replacement was deemed the best option as the towers were located in a more accessible location. Two (2) new 3,000 GOM Baltimore Air Coil Units were received and rigged into place. The scope include re-installation of all supply/return header piping and heat tracing, along with installation of new fan VFD’s.
This Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical company’s high volume, pharmaceutical production facility had ongoing issues with their 20 year old 800 ton cooling towers breaking down, which not only impacted the comfort of building occupants but also the supply of process chilled water to manufacturing equipment. Working in conjunction with both the cooling tower manufacture’s rep and Genesis Engineers, Cyma was contracted to provide an expedited refurbishment under an EPCM platform.
Due to the 24/7 operations of the facility, a shutdown of chilled water supply was intolerable. A set of 500 ton temporary cooling towers were installed atop onsite fabricated temporary steel support platforms. With the execution of a 12” hot tap to the condenser water suction header during a time sensitive partial shutdown to the system, the temporary cooling towers were tied in and brought online.
Replacement of all existing cooling tower wearable parts including fill, sheaves, bushings, shafts, bearings, belts, nozzles, and motors to provide 95% efficiency. Installation of three new PUROFLUX sand filters, sweeper piping, and basin jets to remove dirt/ scale from the chilled/condenser water system. Installation of three new 60-100 HP variable torque drives with integral bypass and NEMA 3R enclosure to efficiently control the new 60 HP cooling tower fan motors. Installation of a new backwash discharge system included 800 GAL polyethylene holding tank, level sensors with high level alarm, 45 GPM sump pump, and SCH 80 PVC piping to discharge tower effluent to interior sanitary.
Upon project completion and equipment functional testing of the overhauled cooling towers, on a summer design day the facility is now able to satisfy chilled water demand with two cooling towers under a 60% load. The new controls system and VFDs coupled with the installed extensions to the tower water return header, now allow the facility to isolate any one of the cooling towers for maintenance with zero impact to the building’s operations.
In 2008, this Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical company completed construction on a new R&D facility (B42 – Research Center 1) at their Spring House campus. This building was designed with standalone utility and waste systems that operated independent of the existing site CUP. In 2012, the site started experiencing issues with high levels of copper in effluent being let from the site. It was determined that improperly designed HVAC system were the culprit; however, the issue prompted the site to consolidate their Process Waste Neutralization to the existing Plant located onsite, rather than let RC-1 remain as a standalone system.
The solution for this was originally though to require a 2,000 LF double-wall pipe run directly to the existing Waste Neutralization Plant. Cyma investigated and proposed an alternate tie-in location, which required only 600 LF of piping. This solution was implemented and constructed back from the proposed tie-in point back to the building line. Interior to the building, an above ground process waste collection tank was installed, and the process waste effluent diverted directly into the new tank. Collected waste would then be transferred via force main through the building to the exterior system peak, where it would gravity flow to the tie-in and eventually the Waste Neutralization Plant. All work was safely executed, specifically the excavation which occurred mostly in high traffic loading dock and drive areas.
The final solution has consolidated the Waste Neutralization for the site to a single location, and cut their sampling requirement in half. Dilution of the RC-1 waste with the rest of the site waste in itself has solved the high copper levels, while more permanent HVAC solutions are implemented.
This Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical company’s B42 in Spring House, PA was supported by three (3) boilers equipped with burners that had become obsolete. Additionally, one of the burners failed due to consistently operating at extremely low turn-down, below what the equipment was designed to support. These boilers supported several central utilities critical to building operation, including humidification, hot water reheat, lab hot water and domestic hot water. Cyma Builders furnished and installed new Johnson Burners on the boilers during controlled shutdown to limit operation risk to the R&D operations ongoing in the building. Additionally, new a new lead lag control system was added to ensure proper boiler run-time and sequenced operation.
