Prior to the test, exhaust air from the finisher line — at ~80 °C and very moist — was released directly into the atmosphere without energy recovery. The goal of the trial was to determine whether Lepido could operate reliably in this harsh environment and deliver measurable energy savings by using recovered heat to pre-heat process water for the laundry’s two tunnel washers.

Objectives

The three key trial objectives were to:

Verify actual energy recovered by Lepido against simulation predictions.
Determine optimal cleaning frequency for long-term operation.
Confirm trial economics, including savings and cost of operation.

Solution

Two Lepido units were installed on the finisher’s exhaust ventilation — one on the inlet zone and one on the outlet zone — capturing waste heat from high-temperature moist air. The recovered thermal energy was integrated into the laundry’s process water loop, pre-heating water before it reached the steam heaters of the tunnel washers.

A detailed measurement system tracked gas use, water temperatures, and thermal delivery, ensuring reliable data for evaluation.

Results

1. 63 % Reduction in Gas Consumption

At the conclusion of the six-month trial:

Gas use per kilogram of laundry output decreased from 0.019 kWh/kg to 0.007 kWh/kg — representing a 63 % reduction in energy used for tunnel washer process heating.
Over a full year, this equates to a reduction of more than 50 tons of fossil CO₂ emissions.
These results confirm that Lepido performed at or above the simulation expectations, delivering robust heat recovery even under highly contaminated, moist exhaust conditions.

2. Maintenance Optimization

The trial found that Lepido could meet simulated savings even with a cleaning interval of every three months. However:

Monthly cleaning (≈30 minutes of staff time) delivered 25 % higher savings, making it the chosen maintenance cadence.
This demonstrates a strong balance between operational simplicity and energy performance.

3. Positive Economics

The heat-recovery system stayed within the quoted trial budget.
Based on confirmed energy savings and CO₂ reductions, the investment is projected to pay back in under three years.

Strategic Insights

The finisher exhaust — one of the harshest ventilation environments due to lint and moisture — proved a viable source of recoverable heat using Lepido.
With this success, CWS plans to explore heat recovery from other exhaust streams, such as drying tumblers and flat-ironers, potentially unlocking further savings.
Initial projections suggest the full site could save more than 250 tons of fossil CO₂ annually once heat recovery is applied across available exhaust sources.

Conclusion

Lepido’s deployment at CWS Workwear demonstrates how heavy-duty contaminated exhaust air — long considered too difficult for effective heat recovery — can be leveraged to achieve significant energy and emissions savings. In this case:

63 % reduction in gas use for process water heating.
50 + tons of CO₂ emissions avoided per year.
Short payback period (< 3 years) with minimal maintenance.
A clear path to broader heat-recovery applications on site.
This case validates Lepido as a commercially viable and technically robust solution for industrial laundries and other high-pollution exhaust applications.