Unilever audits pump costs at ice cream factory

Gloucestershire, UK - Unilever has carried out a Grundfos Pump Audit to help reduce the power consumption of its existing pumps at its Gloucestershire ice cream factory. The audit checks the overall efficiency of current pumps and highlights how much energy could be save by switching to more efficient pumps.

The Unilever audit concluded that the existing 37kW pumps were costing more than £16k per annum to operate. Once the correct duty had been calculated it was agreed that the replacement pumps would now only need to be rated at 15kW. This meant that a fixed-speed pump would have cost less than £7000 per annum.

However, Unilever opted to utilise the Grundfos variable speed range of end suction pumps to offer a greater amount of control for the process. The new pumps will increase the savings by a further 20%, with a payback period of only 12 months.

“The Grundfos Pump Audit helped us to identify the correct pump sizing required to meet our current process conditions," said Grant Burgess, engineering technician at Unilever. "The use of variable speed pumps will give even more savings and leave us with the flexibility to speed up the pump to accommodate any future additions to the process load.”