PROJECT 27
Constant & costeffective hot water !
Edited by
Rory Macnamara . Technical information by Franco Diedericks , CEO , Galvin Magson , Mechanical Engineer , EMS Holdings
Harmony Tshepong Mine Heat Exchange System
Harmony ’ s Tshepong operation constitutes an integrated mining complex in the Free State near the town of Odendaalsrus , some 250km from Johannesburg . The mine has around 8272 permanent employees with just under 900 contractors operating on the mining complex .
Of these employees , an estimated 5500 people make use of the central change houses within the mining complex . Tshepong operation delivers an average of 300,000L of hot water per day to these change houses from a central hot water system near the air compressor plant . The system requires around 14MW per day of heating power to deliver this volume of hot water .
The company proposed to use residual heat from the compressor station through high pressure heat exchange coils within their lowpressure fibre glass heat accumulator vessels to preheat and store hot water in the system .
The compressor station is water cooled with water leaving each compressor at 85 ° C to an evaporator tower to remove heat from each compressor .
The design , manufacture , and installation of a 25,000L heat accumulator tank to absorb and store heat from the compressor plant and deliver a usable flow rate of 6L / s of pre heated water to the system was the responsibility of EMS Holdings .
EMS Holdings , a company located in Krugersdorp-West , which specialises in the manufacturing and design of energy saving hot water systems for the industrial and commercial sectors across South Africa and Mauritius , was tasked with saving energy on the hot water system at Tshepong Mine .
All photos by EMS , Franco Diedericks
Insulated piping .
August 2022 Volume 28 I Number 6 www . plumbingafrica . co . za