Yester Farm Dairies
Sustainable steam for Scottish dairy
In 2017 our British partner, Manco Energy, installed a steam plant at a dairy in Scotland. The dairy is now producing steam from CO2 neutral biomass.
Yester Farm Dairies is a family-owned dairy based outside Edinburgh. The farm produces different dairy products, primarily cheese and milk. They have 27 employees and a turnover of £4.5 million.
The farm needed a new boiler system due to an increased need for steam. The new biomass plant replaces two old boilers, based on gas and oil.
As the new biomass plant was installed in an existing barn, the system needed to be designed to fit the space restrictions.
Yester Farm is burning both wood chips and granulated bio pellets. These are cheap fuel sources and allow the dairy to switch fuel depending on availability and prices. This ensures a high flexibility regarding fuel.
The plant
Linka delivered a complete 1,000 kW steam plant, designed for an operating pressure of 12 bar. The boiler can produce 1.5 tons of steam every hour.
The boiler is designed for burning wood chips and other granulated bio fuels. The fuel is stored on a 30 m2 walking floor system with 5 scraper arms, which move the fuel to a sunken auger. It is then transported to the boiler by additional augers.
By adding an economiser, additional heat is extracted from the flue gas, which increases the efficiency of the boiler.
An automatic ash system transports ash from the boiler to an ash container, located outside the barn. The installed PLC control unit monitors the entire boiler system, and ensures a constant, controlled regulation of the fuel supply, to maintain maximum heating output.
Specifications
Steam production
1.5 t/h
Steam production per hour, which is used in the production to pasteurise milk.
"The new biomass steam boiler will help us become more environmentally sustainable as we produce the heat to pasteurise our milk, from renewable sources."
