Energy Efficiency Project at Nova Steel Structural Tube and Pipe -

Energy Efficiency Project at Nova Steel Structural Tube and Pipe

July 16, 2022

Project description: Nova Steel, whose parent company is located in Montreal and has facilities across North America, specializes in the manufacturing of steel pipe and tube. In 2015, Nova Steel undertook an ambitious building and equipment renovation and renewal project at their factory located at 5870 St-Patrick Street in Montreal.

These renovations were spread over several years and the factory currently includes a total 303,810 sq. ft. of renovated floor space. In total, more than 5 million dollars have been invested over the last 7 years.

Nova Steel entrusted “Mécanique du bâtiment MC2” with the mandate to install state-of-the-art heating and ventilation systems that are robust and reliable, but require minimum maintenance. Seven gigantic Bousquet heating units and two air compensation units with a total capacity of 325,000 cfm (all produced right here in Quebec) , have been positioned at various strategic locations throughout the plant.

"Mécanique du batiment MC2" is proud to be associated with a Quebec developer who cares about the environment!

The plant remains in neutral pressure in winter, which makes the work areas comfortable and healthy. In addition, fans have been added for the summer period to improve employee comfort. Energy efficiency has, among other things, been made possible thanks to the installation of several hundred feet of NAD high induction tubes. These devices have the ability to destratify the hot air (coming from heating appliances or released by production) which migrates towards the ceiling where “it gets lost”. Two studies have shown that destratification alone, in this type of installation, allows energy savings of more than 30%. A heat recovery system combined with the production cooling system (new mill and hydraulics) including a plate heat exchanger, a hot glycol distribution network and heat recovery coils were used to preheat 40,000 cfm of fresh air admitted into the building.

The heat produced by the air compressors was also recovered. Everything is now controlled by means of a centralized Regulvar control system that governs an automated pre set stop-start of the equipment and management of the alarms. Over the years, financial incentives granted by Energir and Transition Energétique Québec have helped to carry out the various phases of the project. In its conventional form, more than 1,058,800 m3 of natural gas would have been needed to produce the heat required to heat the fresh air for the manufacturing space used.

In its current form, only 500,000 m3 will be required. This new technology will result in savings of 548,800 m3 of natural gas (±50% in total) – or approximately 1040 tons of CO2 per year that will not be emitted into the atmosphere.