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Variable speed drives save £20,000 for top UK law firm
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Replacing inverters integrated into OEM-built pump booster sets with externally wall-mounted variable speed drives (VSDs), has saved a building’s clientele more than £20,000 by avoiding exchange of the entire units.
Three pump sets are used at the UK head offices of international law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) to boost cold water flow by maintaining pressure on each of the building’s 12 floors. However, during a refurbishment of the building, an electrical surge caused damage to the inverters used within each of the pump sets.
Faced with a costly bill to replace all three pump sets in their entirety, BCLP asked ABB partner, Triac Services Limited, to seek alternative solutions. Each pump set comprised a 4 kW inverter, a motor, a pump and an electrical control panel. Investigation revealed that it was only the inverter within each set that had failed.
By removing each inverter within the pump sets and replacing with a standalone 4 kW variable speed drive, the cost of new pump sets was avoided. Lorimer Colledge of Triac Services said: “The ABB VSDs are easy to program. From the primary settings menu, we selected multi-pump control and then followed the parameter settings to allow automatic PID pressure control.”
Furthermore, a one-day installation and commissioning and lower energy use significantly contributed to the payback of the refurbishment. By replacing the inverter with a wall mounted VSD, the system design is simplified making maintenance easier and therefore less costly.
The VSDs are programmed to share the operating duties in 12-hour shifts, balancing the workload and helping spread the wear and tear among the three drives, extending the pump set life expectancy.
Colledge added: “As taps are turned on and off in the building, the VSDs change the speed of the pump motors to maintain the setpoint pressure of 6 bars across the 12 floors. The program is set to automatically select one of the standby drives to provide extra pumping to help the duty drive as required.”
Water Treatment & Management
For further information on Xylem Europe visitwww.eibi.co.uk/enquiriesand enter ENQUIRY No. 134
Vinayak Subramanyam is vertical marketing director, industrial, Xylem Europe
A digital solution to water management
Vinayak Subramanyam examines how smart water management is keeping industry compliant and driving down expenditure for industry
Industrial use of water has always been a key outlay for industries. Figures close to $9bn have been associated with industrial water acquisition, discharge, treatment and reuse.1
In fact, nearly 55 per cent of the total uptake of water for all human activities is used by industries like mining, power plants and the food and beverage sector to run their operations.2
Yet while water remains a crucial supporting aspect in every industrial process, it is often overshadowed by other aspects of the core process.
But when we factor in that around 70 per cent of industrial companies lack awareness3 of when assets are due for maintenance or upgrade, we see the threat that can seriously impact both operational continuity and efficiency – and the environment - if attention is not given to smarter strategies for optimising industrial water and wastewater management.
Smart water management can deliver savings of £9.5bn to £11.5bn each year through reductions in capital and operational expenditure.
It combines three factors, all designed to help industries maximise performance and comply with regulatory scrutiny: • intelligent equipment, which includes pumps, mixers, treatment and sensors, capable of self-optimisation for enhanced performance; • smart networks capable of gathering information across a range of equipment to provide real-time reactive management of the system; and • digital solutions that communicate across devices, ensuring real-time monitoring and powerful data analytics for insights that remove the guesswork and worry from industrial water management systems.
Through a more holistic approach, rather than isolating standalone
Industrial companies must give attention to smarter strategies of optimising industrial water and wastewater
functions, it is possible to integrate sourcing, treatment and reuse. By employing smart technology with digital tools, such as cloud analytics, powerful data modelling, and the Internet of Things, significant benefits can be achieved.
Smart water approach
The smart water approach ensures more productive wastewater management and treatment, to better control the effluent stream going back to the environment, which is essential to successfully meet discharge and environmental regulations.
Connected digital systems enable plant managers to tap into faster decision-making to avoid bottlenecks and plan maintenance. This translates into increased production - and quicker delivery to market. It also ensures effective reporting, critical to demonstrate compliance and potentially minimise penalties.
Intelligent pump technology brings interconnected solutions to the world of wastewater pumping: such pumps are capable of sensing the operating conditions of its environment, adapting its performance in real time and providing feedback to pumping
Ozone treatment boosts sustainability
Heating, cooling and cleaning can drain a lot of energy for many factories and industrial plants: it’s here that ozone can meet needs now and into the future, bringing a significant reduction in maintenance, component replacement and, most importantly, time.
Compared to chlorination, ozone has a greater disinfection effectiveness against bacteria and viruses.
In the case of cooling towers, a heat exchanger on an open loop system with a biofilm layer as thin as 1.2mm can see efficiency reduced by up to 43 per cent. Treating with ozone not only removes the fouling from the heat exchanger plates but also keeps associated pipework clean and reduces corrosion from microbial activity. In the long-term, it also minimises stoppage for maintenance and repairs, which is the ‘win-win’ with smart water management, by reducing losses from unplanned downtime and maximising asset life. station operators. Similarly, intelligent adaptive mixers can automatically match output to demand, saving as much as 47 per cent on energy bills by varying thrust according to aeration conditions.
And, as corporations take a more proactive approach to sustainability, the use of non-disinfection products in clean water treatment, like ultraviolet light and ozone, has a growing role to play in many areas.
Not only do these treatments fall in line with regulation - replacing harmful chemicals and aligning with reduced impact on the environment - both products are naturally occurring: another bonus for the company keen to boost their green credentials (see box below).
Smart water management within industry should also factor in rental services, where needed. Rental banks can provide instant access to a wide range of standardised assets, and products and solutions can be rapidly deployed to support any project in a given locality, supported and serviceable by local field engineers.
Service agreements can also ensure that businesses keep running at their best for secure, optimal operations. Outsourcing certain services, including plant operation and maintenance, parts and logistics, asset refurbishments, or training and technical support can minimise downtime, save energy, and optimise operational performance, achieving for any operation more time to focus on the core business.
If recent times have taught us anything, it is that the only constant in business is change. As industries adapt in order to thrive, firms need to draw on all the expertise at their fingertips to maximise ROI and that includes drawing on the specialist knowledge of trusted partners who understand their needs.
References
1) ‘Industrial wastewater treatment - pressures on Europe’s environment’, EEA Report No 23/2018. 2) Industrial wastewater treatment - pressures on Europe’s environment’, EEA Report No 23/2018. 3) Vanson Bourne, “Unplanned Downtime,” 2017 2 4. Philip K. Verleger, Jr., “$200 Crude, the Economic Crisis of 2020 and Policies to Prevent Catastrophe.
Scott MacIndeor is head of advanced services at Water Plus
Water Treatment & Management
For further information on Water Plus visitwww.eibi.co.uk/enquiriesand enter ENQUIRY No. 135
Green roofs and ponds and can used to reduce water going back to public sewers
Move towards your green goals
Scott MacIndeor examines how reducing use of water can have a knock-on effect on an organisation’s drive to reduce emissions
Being more sustainable when it comes to your organisation’s impact on the environment may sound hard to do.
However, thinking around your approach and how you use water can make a substantial difference to your green goals, including working towards net zero and beyond.
Using hot and cold water more effectively is good for businesses, public sector and community groups and charities too. It can directly impact the bottom line and your running costs as well as cut your carbon emissions.
There are bigger savings – and costs from inaction - than you might think. Water can be a significant cost that’s frequently overlooked as not having much saving potential in terms of environmental impact or cost. Did you know hot water can cost between 2 – 4 times as much as cold water once energy costs are taken into account?
It’s important to understand how and where you use water, as your starting to point, so you have a clear baseline to work off. Knowing where you could get funding for larger steps is also key.
Cost efficiency goals
So, what are the options to help environmental and cost efficiency goals? From building design to cut heat loss and water evaporation from swimming pools, so less mains water is needed (and less needs to be heated) – to planting more trees to help reduce site flooding risks and sustainable drainage and rainwater harvesting and reuse, a lot can be achieved by looking closer at water use at your organisation.
On wider impacts, the less water you use through wholesaler networks, the less that needs to be treated and transported to your site – again reducing the impact you have on the environment.
Introducing water efficient taps and showerheads can be a good place to start as well as regular maintenance checks. Adding data loggers to water meters also help. They can provide regular updates from either each day or right down to every 15 minutes on what’s being used - and where - across sites.
Also, many may not realise that while it’s important to cover any risks from Legionella for the water pipes at your business, some organisations run their water heaters at maximum when they could reduce the temperature and save money on energy costs. Remember, it’s important to make sure the water is still at the temperature needed to manage Legionella and water quality.
Control risk of Legionella
The Health and Safety Executive has further details on temperatures for hot water to control the risk of Legionella.
Both what’s outside your buildings as well as your staff can help too. For those with space on their site, or with large roof areas, sustainable drainage including green roofs, ponds and wetlands, along with rainwater harvesting and reuse - to reduce the amount of water going back to the public sewers - is worth considering. This can make quite a difference in wholesaler banding charges for surface water drainage (based on site area), reducing annual costs for businesses and public sector organisations. There may be some charges involved for reviewing surface water and banding for sites.
Increased hand-washing and cleaning at organisations, due to Covid-19, also provides an opportunity to help you reduce water waste – and operating costs – by encouraging your employees to report leaks and issues like stuck taps or constantly running urinals so they can be fixed.
Checking out how you could link to the UN Sustainable Development Goals is also worth doing, if you haven’t already.
Businesses small and large may not realise where help with upfront costs for additional measures can be accessed. There are several support options available that are worth exploring.
This year is also expected to see further information published about the Clean Heat Grant and other measures which would target smaller businesses. The Government’s proposal includes providing capital grants for heating water using low-carbon tech.
