Raising the quality bar
25 Mar 2008
European water regulations are increasing customer focus on quality and reliability of fluid handling equipment — a trend that is helping equipment makers in the region to overcome challenges from low-cost Asian competitors and take advantage of new market opportunities in eastern Europe.
Sectors such as water, wastewater and HVAC are price-driven and have been affected by an influx of low-quality products from India and China, according to Varun Ramdas, a research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
Efforts by EU member states from eastern Europe to comply with directives on water quality and energy efficiency will support long-term revenue growth, particularly in the centrifugal pumps markets, he noted.
"Opportunities for new installations of centrifugal pumps will increase as several new EU accession countries from eastern Europe move to comply with EU energy and water directives," said Ramdas. "Moreover, efforts to update existing infrastructure, coupled with growth in the industrial sector, will boost demand levels."
The importance of machine quality is reflected in the emphasis of reliability by UK utility companies in selecting pump equipment for critical applications, such as dosing and metering.
Yorkshire Water, for example, is employing peristaltic pumps for lime slurry metering at its Blackmoorfoot facility near Huddersfield. Pumping around 30 megalitres of water a day and serving over 400,000 people, the process involves flotation, first-stage filtration and subsequent manganese and chlorine removal in three distinct stages.
Process control engineers at Blackmoorfoot WTW use six separate Watson-Marlow Bredel SPX 40 hose pumps to handle the lime dosing: three of the pumps run 24 hours a day and the remaining three pumps are used as duty stand-by units. The pumps feature a patented direct-coupled design, which permits the drive to be removed and replaced without the need to dismantle the pumphead.
The addition of lime slurry to control the pH of the water is a critical aspect of the water treatment process at Blackmoorfoot. Water enters the works with a pH of around 6 and is then is then dosed with ferric sulphate and brought to a pH of 3.5. Lime is then added to aid flocculation at the first stage of filtration, bringing the water to pH4.2 before more lime is dosed, which brings the level to pH6.8.
At the second stage of filtration, before the water leaves the site, further alkaline lime slurry is metered to the supply in order to maintain the required pH level. The lime raises the pH to around 9.2, which assists in the removal of naturally occurring manganese.
According to the Joe Kelly, process engineer at the Blackmoorfoot Works, peristaltic technology offers distinct advantages in this application: "We've been using the Watson-Marlow Bredel pumps on site for at least seven years - and they have truly delivered trouble-free operation." Other pumps, he noted, "are often prone to failure, particularly the inverters and motors."
Further afield, water treatment plants in California have switched from using diaphragm pumps after experiencing repeated maintenance problems of vapour lock and shutdowns for pumping, metering and dosing applications.
The Zone 7 Water Resources Agency in Alameda County has, instead, switched to progressive cavity pumps — from Seepex — for handling aqueous ammonia and sodium hypochlorite solutions. Zone 7 engineers subsequently commissioned PCP pumps for metering a chloramine solution at the company's wells.
Pumps similar to the NaOCL pumps were specially designed with stainless steel internal components and EPDM elastomers to cope with the chemicals involved, said Seepex. The units, it noted, can pump against high pressure without pulsation, which previously had been a constant problem with the diaphragm pumps.
Zone 7 has subsequently installed additional PCP metering pumps to dose on-site generated 0.8% NaOCL solution to handle increased demand during months of high water usage. Alameda County now has 19 of the metering pumps in the district, with further pumps planned for the future.
Sectors such as water, wastewater and HVAC are price-driven and have been affected by an influx of low-quality products from India and China, according to Varun Ramdas, a research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
Efforts by EU member states from eastern Europe to comply with directives on water quality and energy efficiency will support long-term revenue growth, particularly in the centrifugal pumps markets, he noted.
"Opportunities for new installations of centrifugal pumps will increase as several new EU accession countries from eastern Europe move to comply with EU energy and water directives," said Ramdas. "Moreover, efforts to update existing infrastructure, coupled with growth in the industrial sector, will boost demand levels."
The importance of machine quality is reflected in the emphasis of reliability by UK utility companies in selecting pump equipment for critical applications, such as dosing and metering.
Yorkshire Water, for example, is employing peristaltic pumps for lime slurry metering at its Blackmoorfoot facility near Huddersfield. Pumping around 30 megalitres of water a day and serving over 400,000 people, the process involves flotation, first-stage filtration and subsequent manganese and chlorine removal in three distinct stages.
Process control engineers at Blackmoorfoot WTW use six separate Watson-Marlow Bredel SPX 40 hose pumps to handle the lime dosing: three of the pumps run 24 hours a day and the remaining three pumps are used as duty stand-by units. The pumps feature a patented direct-coupled design, which permits the drive to be removed and replaced without the need to dismantle the pumphead.
The addition of lime slurry to control the pH of the water is a critical aspect of the water treatment process at Blackmoorfoot. Water enters the works with a pH of around 6 and is then is then dosed with ferric sulphate and brought to a pH of 3.5. Lime is then added to aid flocculation at the first stage of filtration, bringing the water to pH4.2 before more lime is dosed, which brings the level to pH6.8.
At the second stage of filtration, before the water leaves the site, further alkaline lime slurry is metered to the supply in order to maintain the required pH level. The lime raises the pH to around 9.2, which assists in the removal of naturally occurring manganese.
According to the Joe Kelly, process engineer at the Blackmoorfoot Works, peristaltic technology offers distinct advantages in this application: "We've been using the Watson-Marlow Bredel pumps on site for at least seven years - and they have truly delivered trouble-free operation." Other pumps, he noted, "are often prone to failure, particularly the inverters and motors."
Further afield, water treatment plants in California have switched from using diaphragm pumps after experiencing repeated maintenance problems of vapour lock and shutdowns for pumping, metering and dosing applications.
The Zone 7 Water Resources Agency in Alameda County has, instead, switched to progressive cavity pumps — from Seepex — for handling aqueous ammonia and sodium hypochlorite solutions. Zone 7 engineers subsequently commissioned PCP pumps for metering a chloramine solution at the company's wells.
Pumps similar to the NaOCL pumps were specially designed with stainless steel internal components and EPDM elastomers to cope with the chemicals involved, said Seepex. The units, it noted, can pump against high pressure without pulsation, which previously had been a constant problem with the diaphragm pumps.
Zone 7 has subsequently installed additional PCP metering pumps to dose on-site generated 0.8% NaOCL solution to handle increased demand during months of high water usage. Alameda County now has 19 of the metering pumps in the district, with further pumps planned for the future.
