Oil Dri Corporation
Mounds, Illinois
Intern: Marci Burt
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Oil Dri is a clay manufacturing facility located in Mounds, Illinois. The plant
mines and processes 135,000 to 240,000 tons of clay a year. Products from
the plant include floor absorbent, cat litter and baseball infield fill material. The
plant was constructed in 1974 and employs over 70 people.
The intern conducted research on projects that could minimize product loss and
energy use.
Results:
The intern made the following recommendations:
- Create a leak detection and repair plan to eliminate product loss during the
processing of the clay. Product loss was determined to be $20,000 a month
and was reduced by over 30 percent after the company implemented the recommended
leak detection and repair program. Annual savings are estimated to exceed
$200,000.
- Upgrade the forced air natural gas space heaters to radiant heat fixtures in
the shop and packaging areas. The energy savings is estimated to
be over $21,000 annually with a payback period of less than one year.
- Replace the T-12 magnetic ballast fluorescent fixtures in the plant with T-8
fixtures. The energy savings is estimated to be over $3,500 per year with
a payback period just over four years.
- Recycle the clay cooler that exhausts through a bag house into the kiln. This
would eliminate the need for one bag house and reduce energy consumption by 15
percent, resulting in an energy savings of over $114,000 annually and reducing
maintenance costs by $4,700 a year.
- Upgrade the conveyor belt heaters to radiant systems. This will
reduce natural gas usage and save $90,000 a year.
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