PRODUCT PROFILE
TAS PumpMonitor is an independent system that quantifies the inefficiency cost of a pump, both currently and over its lifetime, identifies potential equipment failure before it manifests and calculates the optimum time to refurbish or replace the unit, thus minimising the total life cycle cost of the equipment.
It has been developed based on 16 years of experience in developing software for the pump industry. These products are currently in use with some of the largest pump manufacturers worldwide.
PUMP CHARACTERISTICS
Centrifugal pumps are designed to operate within a very confined envelope:
· Each pump model has a unique performance curve based on tested readings taken at manufacture
· This curve describes the relationship between flow, head, power and efficiency over the entire flow range
· QBEP is the pump flow rate at its Best Efficiency Point (BEP) in mechanical terms
· Ideally a pump should operate between 80% and 110% of this flow
· A typical pump performance curve showing BEP and the optimum operating range:
Many pumps do not operate in the best efficiency zone for the following reasons:
· Incorrect design specifications
· Changes to system requirement
· Variable processes
· Ongoing pump wear
· ‘Quick fix’ solutions such as bypassing flow or throttling the discharge line
· Variable Speed Drives with inadequate control
· Insufficient understanding of, or focus on, pump management and its effect on production stability and costs.
Life Cycle Costs
For a typical centrifugal pump the breakdown of life cycle costs is:
· 5% capital
· 5-25% maintenance (depending on the nature of the product being pumped)
· 70-90% power
Operating pumps more efficiently, i.e. closer to the BEP, will save significant amounts of money every year arising from reduction of these cost elements. It will also have a positive effect on production stability and costs.
Power consumption
· Pumps consume 20% of the World’s total electrical power.
· Studies undertaken by government bodies in the EU and USA and independent articles in trade journals all indicate that potential savings of between 15-40% of this consumption are feasible arising from efficient operation.
· A pump operating outside its QBEP range will consume excessive power. This is because the pump efficiency drops off sharply both to the left and right of the BEP, and thus more power is wasted in the form of heat, which is passed on to the fluid.
Maintenance
· Pumps operating close to optimum efficiency cost less to maintain and fail less often.
· Components such as seals, bearings and shafts seldom fail during normal operation if the pump is selected and operated correctly.
· Following the recommendations given by pump performance monitoring may result in a short-term increase in routine refurbishment in order to maintain cost-beneficial pump efficiency. However, total costs over the life of the pump will be reduced as a result of:
· Refurbishing before excessive wear has occurred allows components to be repaired not replaced
· Premature refurbishing, undertaken to avoid any failure and resultant production downtime, can be avoided.
Production Stability
· Operating pumps significantly away from their BEP will adversely affect the pump mechanically resulting in component deterioration and pump failure, incurring major costs in terms of lost production.
· In a process environment unstable pump operation has a negative effect on the operating efficiency and / or reliability of other equipment. For example, in the case of a mill circuit, wide fluctuations in pump performance lead directly to inefficiencies in the entire plant operation. Cyclones operated outside their optimum efficiency bands, result in greater re-circulating loads through the mill and reduced product recoveries.
· Pumps could suffer catastrophic failures operating well off BEP, compromising plant safety
· Excessive redundancy is often designed into pumping systems to provide back-up capacity in case of failure. This results in unnecessary capital expenditure, which can be kept to a minimum by greater visibility of the operation of the pumps thus reducing the risk of breakdown.
MONITORING PUMPS
Condition Monitoring
Traditional on-site condition monitoring is inadequate on pumps:
· It is expensive in time, travel and scarce skilled manpower
· The time interval between tests is too great to detect and rectify problems timeously
· Instrumentation attached to the pump may be absent or inaccurate
· Once a problem has been detected destruction of the pump has already begun.
Remote Performance Monitoring with TAS PumpMonitor
PumpMonitor is a unique product based on TAS proprietary software and hardware and marketed exclusively by TAS.
· No other product enables the monitoring of pump performance remotely in the field cost effectively
· It is designed to provide hands-off monitoring of the pump operation at pre-set intervals (e.g. hourly)
· Data is collected automatically from transducers attached to the pump and sent to the TAS Online web site via the user’s existing communications infrastructure (e.g. SCADA) and/or GPRS
· PumpMonitor analyses these readings against the pump’s original performance curve and specifications to derive the current efficiency and its variance from BEP (i.e. the degree of wastage)
· Basic information (e.g. current efficiency, cost per unit pumped) is returned for display on the user’s SCADA in near real time allowing immediate adjustments to be made where justified.
· The wastage is quantified and classified into wear, duty and volumetric loss in order to assist in problem identification, facilitate cost / benefit analysis of alternative solutions and allow remedial action to be taken before excessive costs are incurred or destruction of the pump commences.
· PumpMonitor also measures the success of the chosen remedial actions and predicts refurbishment intervals for each pump in its specific function.
· The system then allows authorised users real time remote access to the pump performance data via the Internet, giving ongoing visibility into the current operation
· This information service is supported by the TAS Online consultancy team, who provide users with periodic management reports and technical assistance in dealing with alarm conditions.
REMEDIAL OPTIONS
TAS PumpMonitor empowers the pump operator to select the optimum cost justifiable course of action, based on the quantified magnitude and characteristics of the efficiency loss. Some typical remedial options:
Excessive wear
· Overhaul the pump
· Replace the impeller
· Line the pump’s wearing parts
Duty loss
· Replace the pump with a different model
· Trim the impeller or change the pump speed
· Install a variable speed drive
· Change the control methodology
· Make changes to the pumping system (pipes, valves)
Volumetric loss
· For balance flow type pumps, identify the optimum time to replace wearing parts
· Replace bypass or throttling valves in the system with a variable speed drive.
COST / BENEFIT ISSUES
Costs associated with the installation and ongoing operation of TAS PumpMonitor will obviously vary from site to site depending on a number of variables e.g. type and size of pump, characteristics of the product being pumped, current status of instrumentation and communications, geographical location and accessibility etc.
Similarly, the payback period for the initial capital investment will be affected by these and other factors such as maintenance history, power unit costs, degree of pump utilization etc.
These factors are examined during an initial Site Audit, conducted by TAS’s Local Dealer, in which costs and potential savings are estimated and a business case for installation established.
However, certain guidelines hold true for the vast majority of pumping operations:
· In large pumping applications with minimal pump wear (e.g. clear water), the costs of installing TAS PumpMonitor and the capital costs of initial relevant remedial action can be recovered from power savings alone in the short term. Payback periods of less than 1 year are frequently experienced.
· In other applications with greater pump wear, savings in maintenance and plant downtime would increase while power savings may be less dramatic.
· In both cases, ongoing monitoring costs are far exceeded by savings after the initial costs of instrumentation and installation have been absorbed.
· Maintenance and refurbishment costs may rise marginally in the short term as inefficient equipment is replaced or refurbished at an earlier stage. These will subsequently return to previous levels or lower.
· Certain ancillary costs can be reduced or eliminated:
· PumpMonitor can derive flows accurately after initial calibration so relatively expensive flow meters are not required
· On-site performance testing, either for routine checking or after installation / refurbishing, is more accurately undertaken through PumpMonitor.
· The saving in power consumption will have a positive environmental impact and allow the user to accumulate Carbon Credits
· If a phased approach is preferred, initial savings can be used to fund later stages of implementation.
BENEFITS SUMMARY
Pump Monitor analyses the incoming data, quantifies the current level of wastage and classifies it as detailed above. These analyses facilitate cost / benefit evaluation of possible solutions and allow remedial action to be taken before excessive costs are incurred or destruction of the pump commences.
They also establish a baseline against which the success of improvements such as pump coating, trimming impellers or changing the pump speed or model can be measured.
Shortcomings in pump configuration are also exposed e.g. incorrect pump and / or motor selection, one or more pumps in a group operating in series or parallel, which is largely or totally redundant.
Taken together this body of information provides full visibility of pump performance to the operator and/or management. This facilitates operation as close to BEP as possible within production constraints, which, in turn, delivers major power consumption and maintenance cost savings.
In addition, the use of TAS PumpMonitor offers many indirect benefits:
· Operation of the system and interpretation of the output require minimal user expertise. It also enables best practices for pump operation in a given environment to be established, monitored and, if necessary, amended.
· Early warning is provided of significant changes in performance and / or impending equipment failure with a number of important consequences:
· Improved safety
· Improved plant reliability, which reduces costly production downtime.
· Less redundancy needs to be designed into new pump stations and surplus pumps from existing installations can be moved to other sites giving long term capital cost reduction
· Improved plant stability.
· Wasteful travel by skilled staff to perform on-site inspections is greatly reduced. Also such test results are often incomplete due to insufficient on site instrumentation.
· Disputes between the pump user & the OEM can be resolved by reference to independent performance data stored by PumpMonitor
· TAS PumpMonitor information can also be used to facilitate a power load-shifting project
TAS PumpMonitor TECHNICIAL OVERVIEW
SYSTEM ORIGINATION
Pilot Study / Audit
In order to establish the business case for implementation of PumpMonitor on a given site a Pilot Study is recommended. TAS staff will inspect the site and produce a Study Report including:
Detailed analysis of available data for selected pumps with reference to their original performance curves.
General comment on status of other pumps on the site.
Projected savings in Life Cycle Costs.
Recommended data communications option.
Detailed costs and cost/benefit analysis
Initial Data
The following information is required for each pump installation to be monitored:
Pump model and manufacturer
Pump speed
Impeller size
Motor size
Original duty
Service history, including maintenance and refurbishments. This is not strictly necessary but would be of major benefit in projecting savings in maintenance costs
Results of any tests done on site (either by client or OEM)
All of the above data is normally available from the pump user or can be sourced from the OEM.
Ongoing data
For continual monitoring the following data is collected at pre-set intervals (e.g. hourly).
Suction pressure – obtained via a sump level or pressure transducer transmitting a 0-10V or 4-20mA signal.
Discharge pressure – pressure transducer as above
Power absorbed – a power transducer is required unless a VSD is installed in which case this can be obtained from the VSD control panel
Flow rate - if no flow meter is already installed, PumpMonitor can derive the flow rate for each pump with reasonable accuracy after an initial calibration period during which a flow meter is installed temporarily. Note that this ability to derive flow may save the user major expenditure on a permanent flow meter, although on slurry pumps a flow meter would be recommended.
Bypass flow – only certain pumps display this characteristic. It can be measured by an inexpensive electro-magnetic flow meter
Specific Gravity – when pumping slurries, pulp, and viscous liquids with varying SG, the SG of the medium being pumped is required from a densometer. This is not required for water applications.
Speed – if the pump is being driven by a variable speed drive the actual pump speed, output from the VSD, would be required.
Pump Setup
Each pump to be monitored must be set up as follows:
DATA COMMUNICATIONS
Readings from all the instrumentation described above is uploaded to the TAS Online Remote Server (TRS) in a secure location (e.g. Control Room) on the site. It is then transmitted to the TAS Online Central Server (TCS) via GPRS, fixed line modem or Internet gateway.
Where a SCADA system is in place the instruments are connected to this system and the data extracted from the SCADA database by the TRS.
Where no SCADA exists data is transmitted from individual pumps via wireless links to the TRS.
DATA STORAGE AND REPORT DISTRIBUTION
Once the TAS PumpMonitor instrumentation and communications are in place and calibrated, then the system stores and processes the incoming data, and makes it available to the user as follows:
The TCS is Internet based and runs the full TAS PumpMonitor processing software. It is located in a protected environment and is able to receive multiple transmissions, whether by GPRS, fixed line modem or Internet gateway.
Raw performance data is filtered to check for significant variations and, if necessary an alarm can be raised via SMS or e-mail.
Further analysis of the data is performed and the results stored back on the TCS. The database thus contains both raw and processed information, available to the end user through a range of web-based reports.
Distribution of Pump Monitor information may be through various channels, as specified by the user:
Internet
Authorised personnel with Internet access will be able to log onto a password protected Internet website to view all pertinent pump performance and condition information.
The Internet access can be limited to the TAS PumpMonitor site only by the user’s IT personnel.
Intranet
Email and SMS
Monthly or quarterly reports can be sent to nominated staff via email.
Deviations and occurrences can be emailed or sent via SMS to the responsible technician, foreman, engineer or manager within a short time. The duration of this delay is determined by the frequency at which the data is logged on the SCADA or other user database
PUMPMONITOR STANDARD REPORTING
The following reports are supplied under the standard TAS PumpMonitor licence agreement.
Pump Register
The Pump Register screen (see Fig.1) displays a listing of all the pumps currently being monitored to which this specific user has authorised access. These could be at locations all around anywhere in the World where appropriate communications are accessible.
From this screen the user can select a specific pump that he would want to view.
Fig.1: Listing of pumps currently being monitored
Duty Register
Once a specific pump has been selected, the user will have a view of the Pump Duty Register (see Fig.2). This displays detailed raw and calculated information (e.g. flow rate, head, power, pressure, density, speed, QBEP), recorded at the predefined interval nominated by the user.
The user can select to view this information for any specific period.
Fig.2: Current duties for the selected pump
The user can now specify the points to be plotted on the Real Time Duty Curve for the pump.
Real Time Duty Curve
Pump Monitor will plot actual duties superimposed on the standard performance curve for the selected pump (see Fig.3). The crosses and black cloud show where the pump is actually operating and the triangle shows the original duty point, where the pump was meant to operate.
From this example it can clearly be seen that the pump is running way off its BEP, which would result in various mechanical problems. In this case problems such as low-flow cavitation, suction recirculation and reduced impeller life are to be expected.
Fig.3: Plotting current pump duty on standard performance curve
Summary Technical Report
From the information provided a Summary Report can now be drawn (see Fig.4) which shows an quantifies any reduction in pump efficiency and resulting increase in operating costs over time.
TAS PumpMonitor is unique in the way that it calculates the total loss in efficiency and breaks this down into its three major components:
Current efficiency against original efficiency when new
The optimum time to refurbish the pump is indicated.
Current efficiency against optimum efficiency for the pump
High duty loss means that the pump is operating far from its BEP
The suitability of the pump for the current duty is identified
The potential savings available if the unit were to be refurbished or replaced is quantified.
Useable system flow compared with total flow through the pump
The total amount of power wasted on throttling or re-circulating flow is defined.
Variances
PumpMonitor quantifies the additional power absorbed and additional cost incurred per megalitre of product pumped and provides a running total of wasted operating cost to date resulting from the above inefficiencies.
From this example it can be seen that, for the period monitored (432hrs), there was a total loss of 32.1% or 48.7kW. This translates to a yearly loss of US $ 8,882. It can also be seen that the wear loss is excessive, indicating that this pump should be refurbished. The duty loss is also high and this may warrant making changes to the system.
Fig.4: Total wastage for the period is displayed
The TAS PumpMonitor Pro Option
As an additional service TAS Online offer their Pro Option, an advanced pump analysis and consultancy service which is mandatory for the first year of PumpMonitor operation and thereafter optional.
The following is an illustration of the reports which would be supplied under this option.
Original Duty on OEM Curve
The first pump curve (see Fig.5) shows the current operating conditions, in this case 200l/s at 19.3m head, and is a standard item issued by the OEM which, in this instance, is based on pumping water.
Fig. 5: Original Design Duty Standard Water Curve
It is clear in this example that the pump is running way off its BEP. The further away a pump runs from its BEP the more energy it loses to internal recirculation and turbulence, resulting in power wastage. It also results in various mechanical problems, depending on which side of BEP the pump is running. In this case, with the pump operating far to the left of its BEP, problems such as reduced impeller, bearing and seal life, low flow cavitation and suction recirculation can be expected.
Current Pump Performance on Slurry Curve
The curve shown below in Fig.6 is a Pump Monitor Pro Option report that again shows the current operating conditions. In addition the TAS PumpMonitor system has added the Preferred Operating Region, Allowable Operating Region, QBEP (% of BEP flow), Head Ratio, Efficiency Ratio and Tip Speed. The curves are slurry curves, not water curves as in the previous illustration, and the correct efficiency can be seen as 51.7%.
It is obvious from the report that the 14/12 pump is too large for this requirement. It was probably selected for a larger duty based on a future plant requirement that never materialised. The tip speed of 19.7 m/s. is important to note in this instance.
Fig. 6: Current Duty Corrected Slurry Curve
Replacement Pump Recommendation
Given the data extracted from the plant, as shown in the above examples, TAS Online Engineers make recommendations as to the most suitable pump to be used to run as close to BEP as possible in this application.
In this example (see Fig.7) a 12/10 pump has been recommended and has the following advantages:
Efficiency has increased from 51.7% to 57.68%
QBEP has increased from 52% to 72%, thus reducing negative mechanical and wear related problems
Power consumed has decreased from 125.2kW to 112.2kW
Tip speed has only increased from 19.17m/s to 20.45m/s even though the impeller speed has increased from 700rpm to 900rpm.
An analysis was also performed on a Warman 10/8 pump with these parameters. Results indicated that the 10/8 pump would match the required duty extremely well in theory, as the 10/8 pump would operate just to the right of its BEP with an efficiency of 71%. However, this is a mill circuit application, and slurry pump theory dictates that the pump should be selected to operate to the left of BEP and should never be selected to operate on or to the right of BEP.
Fig. 8: Performance of Smaller Pump Plotted on OEM and Slurry Curves
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Pump efficiency monitoring demonstrates energy saving potential
From Engineering News April 18, 2008
Early results from a pump monitoring initiative, which is being carried out a major gold mining company, are demonstrating the potential for significant short-term energy reduction at mines by monitoring and improving the efficiency of pumps, says TAS Online MD Harry Rosen.
The initiative, which has involved the installation of pump monitoring instrumentation to audit some 280 dewatering pumps across 18 shafts at three mines, was instituted following the mining company’s realisation that inefficient pump operation is a significant source of energy wastage at underground mining operations.
International studies by The Hydraulic Institute in the US and Europump, commissioned by the European commission, in Europe, have shown that electric motors consume 65% of electricity output worldwide, and around 20% of this is used in pumping.
International studies investigating pump energy consumption found that systems operated at inefficiency levels between 15 % and 40%. He says that this could translate to a potential savings of between 1 000 MW and 3 000 MW in the pump industry.
In light of the current energy crisis, the call for mines to reduce energy consumption and the identification of pumps as large consumers of energy, the TAS PumpMonitor system could have a significant role to play in reducing mining companies’ energy consumption.
TAS PumpMonitor is an independent system that quantifies the inefficiency cost of a pump, currently and over its lifetime. It identifies potential equipment failure before it manifests and calculates the best time to refurbish or replace the unit, thus decreasing the total lifecycle cost of the equipment.
Early results of the installation are now revealing that substantial savings could be achieved through the performance monitoring of mine dewatering pumps. The initial audit report for the mining company in question projected a saving of 57,000 MWh a year, valued at $1,115,434.00 USD in 2005.
These initial audit report projections now appear conservative and that projected savings are in the region of 110,000 MWh a year. In addition, savings in the region of 20 MW during peak and standard times now appear possible.
The initial data on each pump forms a baseline against which the effectiveness of changes in pump models or components and in operational procedures can be accurately assessed.
In time TAS PumpMonitor data output, which tracks the efficiency of the mine’s pumps minute by minute, will become an invaluable resource from which to develop a code of best practice that the group can use to apply to all of its pumps working under a given set of circumstances.”
The underground pump station at one of the company’s mines consists of six dewatering pumps, each with a 1,875-kW motor. Currently only five pumps are available, as one pump is being refurbished. Two pumps are operating at about 81% efficiency, one at 75% and two at around 67%. These efficiency levels were not available to the company’s engineers prior to the installation of the TAS PumpMonitor.
A financial saving of around $ 3,891.00 USD a month can be achieved by following the recommended scheduling, where more efficient pumps operate during peak and standard power demand periods and the less efficient pumps during off-peak periods. In the context of the current power crisis, this has translated to a saving of 242,000 kWh a month for the single pump station. Savings of 460 kW could be achieved by running the most efficient pumps in peak and standard times.
Some of the remedial recommendations to date have been the intelligent scheduling of pumps in each pump-station on the basis of their relative efficiencies, replacement of low cost components such as by-pass flow assemblies, the elimination of pump throttling by trimming impellers or removing a stage from multistage pumps, the reduction of unnecessary and wasteful parallel pumping and the development of a refurbishment program for inefficient pumps and, by analysing wear trends, predicting the optimum point at which to refurbish each pump.
TAS PumpMonitor has also highlighted two other potential savings areas to the mining company. Savings in the region of 35,000 MWh and 4,8 MW could be achieved though a program to mechanically correct throttle pumps so that they no longer need to be throttled manually.
For excessive balance flow, more frequent replacement of the balance disc assembly would result in savings of 21,000 MWh or 4 MW across the group. The financial implications of replacing components more frequently must be set against the benefits in reduced power consumption.
Many of these require little time and expenditure to implement and can deliver energy savings to the company before the energy crisis deepens during the winter months.
These will only be short-term measures, unless the pumps, which are currently at lower efficiencies, are refurbished at a point where it is financially beneficial for mines to do so. The pump monitoring now enables the mining company to make better business decisions based on the facts now available.
In many cases, site engineers have been aware of the potential savings outlined above. But they have never been in a position to quantify them and thus build a business case for the required corrective actions. The TAS PumpMonitor equipment creates a constant visibility of pumps that was previously not humanly possible. The equipment can therefore be viewed as a crucial tool in establishing a financial motivation for each corrective action, which is acceptable to senior mine and group management.
The rollout of monitoring systems in the mining industry in particular would contribute significantly towards achieving power utility company request for mines to reduce their power consumption by 5%.
The company says that similar opportunities also exist in clear water pumping in the power generation and water treatment industries, which could escalate electricity savings to a highly significant level nationally.
Besides it’s involvement in the mining sector, TAS Online is currently engaged in the pump monitoring of four pumps at a municipal pump station. The project, which started earlier this year, is being used by the utility company to prove the technology and TAS Online is acting as an independent auditor to monitor it. The results from the project are expected at the end of May.
The transducers used by TAS PumpMonitor are off-the-shelf equipment. The difference comes in the software used to transmit the information obtained back to the monitoring offices and the algorithms that analyze the information retrieved.
TAS Online's recommendations are independent of the pump manufacturer or the pump equipment. It recommends refurbishment, modification and when there is a need, specifies only the characteristics of the type of pump that should replace the inefficient pump.
TAS PumpMonitor has been developed in South Africa by Technical Applications Software based on 16 years of experience in developing software for the pump industry. TAS Online products are currently in use with some of the largest pump manufacturers worldwide
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Initial deployment of TAS PumpMonitor is in the Tri-State Area at present.
Dealers for the TAS PumpMonitor Solution are being reviewed now.
Please contact Synergy Sales for more details on becoming a TAS PumpMonitor Dealer.
Outside Sales: Bryan Wadsworth
Cell Phone # 1-815-790-4494