Customers are increasingly choosing environmentally friendly and energy-efficient pump systems. Large shares of pumps installed worldwide simply convey water. The design requirements for such pumps are rather modest and standard centrifugal pumps are generally used. When it comes to pumps for process industries, the standards are significantly higher: these drives convey and meter a wide variety of aggressive, corrosive and possibly toxic fluids, at high or low pressures and temperatures. In addition, there is the task of metering additives and chemical mixtures.
As a result, these hermetically sealed pumps are more complicated in their design and pump designers need to possess the right process know-how for the pump environment. At the final analysis, it is the total cost analysis that is decisive for the customer, also known under the concept total cost of ownership (TCO).
Process diaphragm pumps and diaphragm metering pumps for Clean Energy Technologies
Diaphragm metering pumps and process diaphragm pumps from LEWA, with their unique DPS diaphragm protection system, are particularly well-suited to conveying or metering critical media (toxic, flammable, poorly lubricating, solids-laden or sterile fluids) and they enable safe, environmentally friendly production. They are often the technology of choice when pump systems are needed for the new clean energy technologies – for example, in production of the latest generation of bio fuels or in sequestration of CO2 back into fossil-fuel reservoirs.
Diaphragm technology ensures that no toxic or explosive materials are released or mixed with another fluid. The hermetically sealed LEWA pumps fulfil air requirements for technical plant systems. Looked at from the other perspective, no material from outside can contaminate the medium being pumped either, which is important for use in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
LEWA pumps operate safely, are environmentally friendly and are extremely energy-efficient as well. LEWA process pumps also offer efficiency greater than 80% over their entire pump operating range. Compared to multi-stage centrifugal pumps, diaphragm pumps shine in practice, often with twice the efficiency. Centrifugal pumps only attain maximum of one working point with high efficiency.
In CO2 back injection for carbon capture and storage (CCS), operators save up to 35% in energy costs compared to the use of compressors in the final stage of sequestration of the already liquid CO2.
Below are some practical examples, in which operators were able to make their production safe, environmentally friendly and energy-efficient using pumps and systems from LEWA:
- In flue gas treatment in power plants: injection of additives; in this case, safely operating and nearly maintenance-free metering pumps from LEWA, are even replacing the centrifugal pumps that are typically used in power plant applications
- In odourisation processes: customised layouts of odourisation systems for feeding auxiliary materials, are implemented in an economical and environmentally compatible way - into a biogas distribution network, for example
- To optimise heat management in softener production, LEWA supplied metering systems with heat exchangers that are used to cool finished products with the process water needed for mixing
- LEWA also supplies systems that are powered independent of external power grids, such as solar-operated packages that are used in extreme environments such as in Algeria
- Processing of pure silicon for solar cell production requires leak-free, process-safe metering and process pump technology
- Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (biofuel production) occurs under very high temperatures and pressures. LEWA pumps can handle these requirements and thanks to their high efficiencies they operate with high energy efficiency, process safety and economically
- In natural gas exploration, LEWA ecosave pumps (these pumps meter corrosion inhibitors and anti-freeze materials into the pipeline) can run autonomously, powered by very small differential pressures - therefore, they do not require any auxiliary energy sources, which is important in remote areas for example
Something else that wins over operators in the process industry: LEWA pumps and systems exhibit long service life, low maintenance costs and low life cycle costs. Just how seriously LEWA is addressing the issues of resource protection, energy-conscious behaviour and environmentally compatible production is also evident within the company: for example, LEWA participants in the ECOfit environmental programme for businesses sponsored by the German state of Baden-Württemberg. This involves checking and analysing performance in the individual areas of waste management, air purification management, water usage and energy savings. By assisting companies in pursuing continual improvement in environmental performance, ECOfit also prepares them for later EMAS or ISO 14001 certification.
