Industry

Pumps

Pump systems presently account for a good 25% of the industrial electricity consumed worldwide. It is believed that approximately 40% of this energy could be saved. Centrifugal and displacement pumps occupy a large market share, with centrifugal pumps accounting for 73%. Centrifugal pumps, in particular, represent great potential for energy savings because approximately 75% of these pumps are oversized, frequently by more than 20%.

Picture: Motor Challenge Programm

The German Energy Agency (dena) has an ongoing campaign entitled "Energy-Efficient Systems in Trade and Industry", which advises companies active in the following industries on measures that they can introduce to increase their energy efficiency: chemicals, paper, electrical, food manufacturing, plastics, metal processing, water supply and waste water disposal. In particular, this campaign demonstrates that all companies, irrespective of their industry classification, will benefit financially from any energy-saving efforts that they undertake. Depending on its size, a company could potentially save between €2,000 and €50,000 per year. The payback period for the corresponding investment is generally two to three years. This campaign also shows that, on average, companies can reduce the electricity consumed by their pumps by approximately 30%.

In addition to comprehensive system optimisation, the use of efficient high-tech products and highly developed controls are the two main ways to increase energy efficiency:

• replace oversized pumps with smaller pumps that have highly efficient motors;
• use highly efficient pumps;
• use frequency converters for variable-speed operations,
• equip pumps with proportional control,
• optimise downstream heat exchangers.

Germany is the second-largest global supplier of pumps and compressors. German companies are frequently the market leaders in highly efficient high-end pumps and compressors for specific purposes.

Picture: VDMA