Green steam aims to keep big bills at bay

The company, which is in Keighley, estimates that boiler systems could cost large firms as much as £2M a year, so potential savings could total as much as £300,000.

Byworth's existing boiler design grew out of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership Network scheme with Leeds University, looking at measuring and improving boiler efficiency.

Developments included an air-to-air heat exchanger, which uses air that is already hot before heating it further. "We tested a test rig for six months," said md Peter Baldwin. He predicted that the latest prototype model could operate at 94.5% efficiency.

The best savings could be achieved by replacing outdated models, said Baldwin. Few manufacturers still used boilers that were more than 15 years old, he said. "But one site we worked on recently was using an early 1980s reverse flame boiler and achieved savings of £10,000 per week on its bills."

Test results of Byworth's latest prototype need to be collated and confirmed, but the indications are that it has significantly improved on its previous system.