Case study: the power of pumps
29 Mar 2016
Pumps firm helps food manufacturer become energy compliant.
Convenience food manufacturer Greencore supplies chilled, frozen and ambient food products throughout the UK and US.
The company offers a wide range of products from healthy cooking sauces to children’s birthday cakes.
New Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) legislation outlined by the government requires large companies to carry out energy audits and review the total energy use from their business operations.
In order to save £50,000 and ensure compliance in line with the ESOS legislation, Greencore called on the services of Northampton-based pump specialist Dura Pump.
Refining the process
As part of its services, Dura Pump conducts initial site surveys in order to pinpoint issues and work out how to help refine existing processes, thereby making companies compliant with the ESOS legislation.
In the case of Greencore, to help generate the necessary savings, Dura Pump specified, supplied and installed a Danfoss Aquadrive, which is designed to be energy efficient and features software to protect assets and prevent issues such as water hammering.
Payback times for our solutions are often as low as six months, with instant savings to be made
Bradley Ford, Dura Pump marketing manager
As part of the Greencore upgrade, Dura Pump engineers ensured the amount of time pumps were operating was reduced by 50%.
Dura Pump marketing manager Bradley Ford says that because companies such as Greencore need to prove they are saving energy, Dura Pump reviews the pumps that are in place, identifies areas where energy is being wasted, and analyses where savings can be made.
“Payback times for our solutions are often as low as six months, with instant savings to be made,” Ford says.
According to Ford, Greencore had a twin wash-down pump system with 7.5kW vertical multistage pumps running consistently at 25bar.
Under pressure
“This meant that the pump system was often running for no reason, and therefore over pressurised the system,” he says.
Once the Dura Pump team had visited the Greencore site to analyse the wash-down system, it recommended the Danfoss Aquadrive inverter to control the pressure of the system and run both pumps only when necessary.
“We also installed a pressure vessel and other components to protect the pump and reduced the overall pressure from 25bar to 15bar,” Ford says.
“The new system gives Greencore a reliable, long-term solution for reduce maintenance and energy usage,” he adds.
