| Power plant products
First large-scale application of sliding bearings
Envision Energy recently announced that its in-house developed and manufactured sliding bearings have been successfully applied on a large scale for the first time worldwide, achieving zero failures across 500 wind turbines. This milestone makes Envision Energy the world’s first wind turbine OEM to achieve independent research, in-house production and large-scale application of sliding bearings, marking what it believes is a major technological breakthrough in the wind power industry. “Sliding bearings have long been a key innovation in the wind power industry, playing a crucial role in reducing friction and improving efficiency.” said Mr Lou Yimin, senior vp and chief product officer at Envision Energy. “After five years of extensive research, development, and field testing, we have successfully integrated this technology into our wind turbine gearboxes, overcoming technical barriers set by international brands and achieving large-scale application.”
Envision formed a specialised team in 2019 for sliding bearing R&D and pilot production.
This team successfully developed a direct energy deposition technology to apply bearing material directly to the planetary pin, enhancing the performance and durability of bearings. Sliding bearings improve turbine efficiency and extend the lifespan while reducing maintenance costs through their more compact and simpler design. Test data shows that gearboxes equipped with sliding bearings reduce power losses by 20% to 25%, boosting wind turbine energy output by approximately 0.5%. “Sliding bearings are not a new technology – their application dates back to ancient Egypt. The wind industry began exploring them late 2000s, and between 2018–2020, leading gearbox manufacturers achieved mass deployment of sliding bearing gearboxes in large-capacity turbines for global OEMs” said bearings at Envision Energy. “As a turbine OEM, Envision Energy has achieved zero failures in real-world operations, with our sliding bearings proving highly successful across all validation stages from bench and gearbox testing to
prototype trials and mass application in wind farms.”
Envision Energy’s zero-failure achievement is backed by extensive testing and verification, with over $14 million invested in validation. “The boundary conditions of sliding bearings, such as rotational speed and load, are directly influenced by wind turbine control logic” commented Owen Yang, gearbox expert at Envision Energy, “We optimise the turbine control strategy to avoid risks such as high loads, low speeds, and insufficient lubrication, ensuring the bearings’ reliability.”
New pump energy optimisation solution
On 25 March Sulzer launched its new Energy Optimisation Service, an energy efficiency and carbon reduction service designed to create a new best practice standard for the operation of centrifugal pumps across their lifecycle for energy intensive industries such as power generation, oil and gas, chemicals and water desalination.
The solution brings together digital analysis, machine learning and ongoing monitoring with Sulzer’s well known engineering expertise to drive down carbon emissions, enhance reliability, and reduce energy costs. A 1% increase in global pump efficiency would save around 59 TWh of electricity, says Sulzer; some
pumps’ efficiency could be increased by as much as 20-30%.
Exampling a customer in Spain, Ravin Pillay- Ramsamy, services division president at Sulzer commented that the new service offers a comprehensive solution that tackles inefficiency – from identification through to improvement and monitoring. “A pilot customer in Spain will now save €1 million in energy costs and over 2300 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year as a result of energy optimisation improvements identified by the Service. By rerating five pumps, energy efficiency increased from 72% to 83% saving the operator 5 000 MWh in electricity every year” he said.
Consisting of four steps, an initial pump energy audit identifies areas of inefficiency with a proprietary calculator – PumpWise – outlining the potential energy, carbon and monetary savings.
A tailored proposal is generated by an expert team presenting a range of options to return the pump to run at its best efficiency point through an engineered retrofit, with varying techniques such as hydraulic re- rates, specialised coatings, wear clearances and more. Each option weighs operational costs, investment, downtime, payback and efficiency guarantees. The upgrades are then implemented with support from Sulzer’s established retrofit team.
Post retrofit, Sulzer offers a performance agreement to maintain optimised reliability and efficiency. This includes access to Blue Box, the company’s proprietary machine learning technology which turns pump performance data into actionable insights.
Ravin added: “For operators who are constantly challenged to do more with less, making energy efficiency improvements is a win-win. With pumps accounting for 20% of the world’s electricity demand, we want to offer a streamlined, future-proofed way for customers to improve their energy efficiency regardless of their pump OEM. We believe this solution creates a new best practice standard for pump operation that goes above and beyond in supporting operators to remain future-ready.”
www.modernpowersystems.com | April 2025 | 39
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