From pumps to systems

It is now well accepted that the use of energy efficient pumps, either through choice or driven by legislation such as the ErP Directive from Europe, contribute towards lower costs, lower energy use and reduced emissions.

However, energy efficient pumps on their own, or even energy efficient systems that have not been designed thoroughly, can negate the benefits of these sophisticated, high-efficiency components.

It’s rare these days that an ‘off-the-shelf’ response to a major project will deliver the ultimate response required

Wilo’s Simon Oakes

It is essential that the pumps selected – however efficient they may be – contribute to the overall efficiency of the system for which they are identified.

For a process system to be able to meet the user’s expectation, all the components should be understood in their own right along with an understanding of the ability of those components to work in harmony so that their benefits are fully optimised.

While many manufacturers and distributors of pumps, valves and mixers are content to sell products to a required end-user specification, others take a more holistic approach and see a role for providing not just technical advice, but influencing the design of the system in which their equipment is operating.

Clearly, for many small companies it is not a viable proposition to have in-house resources to take on these additional activities, even though they can add value to their product offerings.

Wilo

Wilo UK has consciously moved from the role of a pump manufacturer and supplier to that of a systems solutions provider.

Increasingly, the company is working with partners to provide a larger part of a new system, where the pumps are integrated within the overall project and Wilo staff can add their knowledge and expertise to those of other contributors.

This ensures that the response they provide matches the real requirements of the customer rather than the perceived requirements they may have.

“Major savings can be made on a project by specifying the right size or capacity pumps and other components, rather than building in unnecessarily high capacity or integrity for the particular challenge that a system faces,” says Wilo UK Water Management sales director Simon Oakes.

“Systems rarely operate at full capacity and if they do, rarely for long. Thus, excess capacity can be an expensive and unnecessary inclusion when a less radical response might well suffice and deliver the response that the customer really needs at a cost he can afford.”

Wilo UK is one example of a growing number of pump manufacturers that see a role for opening greater opportunities by moving into systems.

It is by no means a new phenomenon, but as customers become more demanding there is certainly greater interest and awareness of the role that manufacturers can play.

“It’s rare these days that an ‘off-the-shelf’ response to a major project will deliver the ultimate response required,” adds Oakes.

“So developing an understanding of the project in its widest sense, of the individual elements and even components offered for the project is more important than ever, to bring projects in on time and on budget.”

As part of this trend towards greater collaboration, Wilo has developed systems in conjunction with its clients, the latest being the Oxymser

. Developed with Supralift, the Oxymiser is an all-inclusive water treatment solution from the initial design to the completed installation.

Traditionally the construction of replacement water treatment works has been a piece meal process, with elements of the system assessed and procured separately.

This is both costly and time-consuming and fails to take into account the whole picture. There are four elements to the Oxymiser.

The valves are energy efficient low pressure drop control valves.

The aeration system offers high efficiency, is 100% recyclable, and involves no maintenance using fouling resistant technology.

The mixer, supplied by Wilo, offers energy efficient, non-clogging submersible anoxic zone mixers and the blowers are energy efficient blowers with built in control.

All the elements offer remote monitoring and ongoing optimisation.

“So what has happened is that Supralift has designed an optimised aeration system, using ultra efficient Aerzen Blowers, and PTFE coated micro bubble 9” diffusers and Wilo has designed slow running, super efficient mixers to generate the flow,” says Oakes.

“The combined objective was to provide an increase in water treatment, while reducing the energy consumed,” he says.

AxFlow

Pan European pump distributor AxFlow has been delivering process packages and skid-mounted units for several years, more specifically for the offshore oil and gas industries and for food processing.

AxFlow UK marketing manager Malcolm Walker says that although there does not appear to be a significant upward trend in pump manufacturers and distributors expanding into process systems, there are opportunities for larger companies with greater engineering resources to provide more than a simple bare shaft pump.

He highlights the company’s base in Aberdeen as an example of its UK engineering resources and its Systems Division in the Netherlands.

In keeping with many other pump manufacturers and suppliers, AxFlow’s activities in process systems are largely customer-driven, with equipment being designed for specific applications.

One of AxFlow’s latest developments has been a plant for processing chicken viscera from chicken offal and waste parts.

This complex skid-mounted system brings together lobe and hose pumps, inverters, control panels, an emulsifier hopper, a holding tank, valves, a heat exchanger, a glycol chiller, compressed air, CIP washdown facilities and discharge pipes.

Verder

Verder is also active on the systems and pump packages front, the pump manufacturer and supplier offering service and repair as well as a project and system division.

“We have noticed over the last few years the trend is that customers will purchase a system rather than just a pump,” says Verder pump sales engineer Phil Brown.

“This may be a system direct from Verder or a system from another contractor who will purchase a Verder pump unit and then make this into a system.”

In Verder’s experience an end user will specify a requirement for the target goals they are trying to achieve.

“For example, the end-user may state they have ‘x’ amount of wash water from a cleaning process and want to transfer the wash water to drain,” adds Brown.

“This transfer process will have a set specification for target water consent, which means the wash water will need to be filtered and treated. We will have wash water details at source and target details required for drain.”

In this manner, the project then becomes a complete system not just a transfer pump, allowing the customer to get a turnkey system.

It also means that the design, process calculations and full responsibility of the system is handed over to Verder who then need to design, supply and deliver a system that achieves the customer’s target goals.

The system is a fully integrated and complete entity from a single source with responsibility for compliance lying with Verder.

Commercial and industrial users of wastewater and effluent treatment plants are reported to be taking a keen interest in Verder’s Dura skid-mounted peristaltic dosing pump system.

The system is being used by Lhoist manufacturers of Neutralac SL45, a 45% strength liquid lime, to demonstrate the effectiveness of their product.

It is used for industrial effluent, wastewater treatment, sludge treatment, food waste treatment and for increasing pH in digested sludge for agricultural uses.

Being a suspension, the most appropriate pumping technology is the peristaltic pump.

Verder’s small-scale dosing rigs connected to IBCs tend to operate at low dosing rates around 20lt/hr and the integrated package is designed around the Dura peristaltic pump.

The Dura hose pump is a close-coupled compact pump offering flow rates of between 1lt/hr and 15.3m³/hr and pressures from 8bar to 16bar and is the perfect choice for this dosing package.

Typically, the Dura dosing package comes with a duty and standby pump configuration, pH monitor, control electronics, agitator for an IBC and any necessary pipework connections.

Hidrostal

Two other international pump manufacturers that are active in the manufacture of process systems are Hidrostal and ProMinent.

Hidrostal is fully committed to the concept of offsite manufacturing, where factory assembled pumping plant saves on design and installation cost for end users.

Where there is a site manufacture enables easier standardisation and fewer interfaces.

A large number of tank mixers featured in Hidrostal’s HidroMix range are now available as skid mounted pre-assembled units.

These comprise of all the necessary design and build items such as pump, pipework, valves, brackets and supports, assembled as a manufactured package to ensure the units work to their optimum design.

The onsite mechanical and electrical requirement is then reduced to cable terminations at the local junction box and the mechanical connections to the tank.

Hidrostal claims that utilising offsite manufacture greatly benefits the end user through benefits such as reduced project delivery costs, less design and project management, standardisation, construction in a controlled environment and repeatability and traceability.

The company is in the process of launching an Offsite Manufactured Above Ground Sewage Pumping station.

This can either be skid mounted for installing within an existing building or alternatively supplied as an integral part of a GRP Kiosk, with all ancillary equipment such as control panel, lighting and interconnecting pipework assembled, pre wired and precommissioned.

Upon delivery to site only the electrical connection to the panel and inlet and outlet pipework requires site connection.

ProMinent

Michael Birmelin at ProMinent points to the development of a metering system designed for dosing ammonia solution into cooling circuits and boiler feed water as a good illustration of the need for designing within a system.

Birmelin says that only the precise interaction of metering pumps, controllers and sensors can guarantee fault-free operation with maximum safety.

To treat boiler feed water in a power plant application ammonia solution is used to increase the pH to above nine.

ProMinent’s specially designed ammonia batching and metering station uses 25% ammonia and fully desalinated water to produce 4% - 5% ammonia solution.

Tailored precisely to the system’s required capacity, the panel-mounted metering station is equipped with a 500 litre PE storage tank with metering container, two diaphragm metering pumps and a measuring and control unit.

Moving into process system and plant design from a base in pump manufacturing and supply clearly offers fresh opportunities and revenue streams.

For end-users, there are the many benefits of using a one-stop supplier.

However, it is a development that will not suit every pump manufacturer and distributor.