June 09, 2008

Guaranteed Energy Saving in Pumps

Today I'll share a very useful sure shot energy saving method in cooling water pumping system. So let me start as usual from some initial questions which are necessary for estimating the amount of efforts required in proving the concept.

How many cooling water pumps do you have in your unit? I have ~50 major such pumps.
What is the total power load of these pumps? It is ~ 6000 kW in my unit - YES whopping 6 MW load.
What is the potential of saving out of this load - May vary from 5 - 7% or more, based on actually achieved savings in my units.

Related References


How it Works
Whenever a cooling water pump is used it is generally getting corroded over a period of time due to several issues related to cooling water treatment & therefore, mostly it is pitting corrosion which makes the casing inner surface rough & it becomes tough for handling water efficiently.

In a centrifugal pump the action is to provide rotary forces to convert the velocity energy into pressure energy. These centrifugal forces when comes in contact with the rough wall of casing the frictional coefficient between fluid & pump casing wall increases. Thus, overall losses inside the pump increases & hence efficiency drop is observed over a period of time.

When we apply any ceramic or enamel coating on the inside wall of pump casing this frictional resistance reduces, therefore energy saving is achieved. In general I have used this method on different pumps ranging from samll ~100 kW to very large 1 MW pumps & found 5-7% savings actually achieved. The saving range can vary depending on the condition of your pump.

The benefit of this suggestion is that
  1. It increase efficiency for new pumps by reducing inherent friction of material & fluid - So you get more efficiency but it will be limited to ~1-2%
  2. Increase in efficiency of older pumps - the scope here is more 5-7% or higher
  3. Increase in life of older pumps
  4. Avoid early damage to new pumps
  5. Avoid drop in efficiency of new pumps
  6. Delay investment for replacement of older pumps saving capital & interest cost
  7. Restore pump head
  8. Restore pump capacity


Here are the pics of before & after coating in my unit.




In my case of 50 pumps the estimated investment was only Rs. 20 Lac & saving of 360 kW power @ 6% out of total 6 MW load. This equals to Rs. 114 Lac/year saving at Rs. 4.0 / unit power cost. Thus payback was only 2 months.

Do you still need more good reason to read 'Chemical Professionals'......NO......So get this idea, start working on it, send a proposal to your BOSS..............IT WILL NOT FAIL....................& get a promotion next year.

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