PUMPS AND PUMPING SYSTEMS
Submersed efficiency
After listening to its customers,
ABS has created a new range of
submersible sewage pumps with
premium efficiency motors
A
chance to go back to the drawing board
and create a product from scratch,
based entirely on drivers given by your
customers, is not a situation that comes along
too often, but this is exactly what gave rise to the
new ABS EffeX range. At the UK launch on 15
October at the Williams F1 Conference Centre,
the reasons why a company would go to these
lengths rather than just improving existing
designs quickly became clear.
Left to right: Alan Kitching, senior application engineer; Ciaran Quirke, global product manager
Paul Fisher, technical standards manager at
wastewater collection; Clive Patten, MD ABS UK; Steve Friendship, UK sales manager wastewater
Severn Trent Water, explained: “If you look at collection; Andy Smith, service centre manager; and Michael Doyle, project leader EffeX motor design
efficiency in relation to the CRC, 60% of Severn
Trent’s energy use is pumps. by reversing the pump but our solution removes showed that as water usage in homes decreases
“In the last financial year we used 922GWh. this problem at the design stage.” the rag to water concentration in the system is
As much as 163GWh of this is supplied from a The numbers are impressive – the bearings increasing, while more and more products are
big renewables programme but, even so, in used in the EffeX range have been bulked up, being flushed that do not break down in water.
strategic terms, pressures on operation expense giving guaranteed lifespans of 50,000 hours for This perhaps explains the 5,000 man hours that
are critical, so lowering whole life cost is the key.” the smaller units (under 9KWh) and 100,000 the company devoted purely to watching how
The result of ABS’s efforts is the world’s first hours for the larger units. The impeller is an rags in water behave.
range of submersible sewage pumps with all-new design as well, created to deal with Ciaran Quirke explains: “We quickly found
premium efficiency motors, compliant with the sewage media with as little need for a cutting that most often it was the leading edge of the
IE3 standard and offering efficiencies in excess of solution as possible. impeller that was the key area responsible for
93.9%. The company has coupled these super- Ciaran Quirke, ABS global product manager, clogging, so we optimised our design using a
efficient motors with a brand new hydraulic, wastewater collection, was part of the team variety of cutting-edge techniques to prevent
offering total efficiency increases of up to 20% responsible and explained further: “Many of the this and create an action whereby clogging is
and a raft of additional benefits. solutions employed today are dependent on not an issue.”
Clive Patten, ABS UK MD, outlined some of cutting – when this function is lost the system In simple terms the new impeller appears to
them. “The EffeX pump represents one of the no longer performs, energy consumption use a ‘scooping’ action to swiftly pull in the rags
best whole life cost options available, a 15-20% increases and eventually breakdowns occur. and pass them through the system without harm.
efficiency saving in real terms means a significant “Our research shows that 60% of all pump At the launch, the assembled industry
cost saving, plus it has implications for station breakdowns are pump related and, of stakeholders raised the question of cost, and
sustainability. It will mean less CO
2
output, the these, around 60% are due to clogging. The once again the ABS team was prepared, offering
ability to repair rather than replace means huge EffeX range overcomes this by employing an an online tool that will calculate the savings the
savings and the new design has a fantastic impeller that deals directly with 80% of the new technology will bring and even demonstrate
capacity to avoid blockages, which will mean less problem, with only a 20% need for cutting.” how quickly this money will allow a shift from
downtime for pumping stations,” he said. This is a problem that is set to become more ‘fire-fighting’ to preventative maintenance.
“Other systems address the ragging problem and more critical – the ABS research also The team is also lobbying Defra to include this
type of product within the Enhanced Capital
Allowance (ECA) scheme – a change that may
take a couple of years but will then assist the
industry as a whole to move to these more
sustainable technologies.
This is being done in partnership with the
industry, including Severn Trent Water, as Paul
Fisher outlined: “With products like this the OPEX
savings will be high. We will support the push to
add this type of product to the ECA as it will
then encourage the industry to adopt them,
Representatives at the UK launch of the
which is better for both energy efficiency and
ABS EffeX range at the Williams F1 Conference Centre
also reducing carbon.”■■■
November 2009 Water & Wastewater Treatment 33
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