Trump Marina Hotel and Casino Add Ozone To Laundry Procedures

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Created on Tuesday, 03 July 2007 02:53

Written by Staff

Atlantic City, NJ – The Trump Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ has joined in an energy savings and clean energy initiative that is sweeping the nation.  The 728-room resort began their upgrade and installation of utility and energy saving equipment in 2006 by switching over to compact fluorescent light bulbs and finished up just two weeks ago with the installation of ozone equipment on all the hotel laundry’s washers.

“Ozone is a typical recommendation for laundry savings – it has a quick pay back, less than two years,” says Ken Hughes, development engineer at Constellation Energy Services (CES) who oversaw the entire Trump Marina energy conservation project.  CES developed a comprehensive energy project for the hotel of which the laundry was just one feature. “We go in and design, engineer and manage a project that can include installing anywhere from three energy conservation measures to 100,” says Hughes. 

Since the laundry already had a Thermal Engineering water recycling system in place   CES focused on energy savings from the reduction of hot water and total water use, improved wash quality and ironer finishing speed and reduced chemical use and wash formula time. The company they contracted to install the EnviroSaver II ozone system as independently operated equipment on each washing machine was Wet-Tech out of Worcester, MA.

“We came at it from two angles,” says Jack Reiff, President. “We lowered the hot water tank thermostat by 20 degrees and then started using less hot water in the wash by 70 percent.”
As far as chemicals go, Reiff explains that ozone helps reduce chemical use by oxidizing the alkaline chemicals, which are then kept active for longer periods of time. In other words, ozone allows you to use fewer chemicals to handle the same amount of laundry.  Reiff and his team from Wet-Tech didn’t just look at the project from an ozone point of view but rather from an overall good washing procedures as well.

“The laundry’s problem was really with their ironers as the linen was backed up because the ironer could not keep up with the washers,” says Reiff. Improving the water extraction through the use of ozone (ozone makes the water slicker so that it slides off the material faster) and wash formula changes meant less water retention in the linen which allowed the ironer to accomplish its’ job at a higher speed. 

“They were running their ironer at 50 feet a minute and now should be running it at 80 feet a minute,” says Reiff.
Doreen Macklin, laundry manager at the hotel, acknowledges that their ironer speed has improved and notes other positive changes since the project ended two weeks ago.

“We’re using less hot water,” she says explaining that where they used to use 160-degree water they now use 140-degree. “We have reduced our chemical usage too.” And then of course there’s the added bonus that only ozone offers – improved linen quality.  “Whatever the oxygenation is in this system our linen now has a different smell – you can’t smell the bleach anymore and it looks a little brighter,” says Macklin.

The hotel’s laundry processes a weekly average of 69,000 to 70,000 pounds weekly with more in the summer when the pool is open.  There are 21 laundry and linen attendants, five seasonal summer employees and three washers. 

The goods are processed by two 450-pound Washex washers, one 65-pound Washex washer, two standard Maytag washers, one 450-pound Challenge dryer, one 65-pound Cissel dryer, a Jensen flat ironer for large pieces, a CV Sharper Image ironer for small pieces,  a Challenge towel folder and a Colmac Mark 11 steam tunnel.