Energy Savings through Pipe Header Optimization on a Cooling Tower Pumping Station

Abstract

ABSTRACTEnergy savings in fluid pumping systems mainly rely on decreasing the flow rate of the fluid being pumped, in which case there are a few tried-and-tested solutions such as impeller trimming, variable speed drive (VSD) installations, replacing larger pumps with smaller pumps to match the system requirements, etc., but what can one do to optimize a system in which the flow rate of the fluid cannot be reduced?When the electrical components of the system cannot be modified to increase the efficiency of the system, one needs to look at optimizing other parts in the system. In this specific application, the main pipe header of the pumping system was optimized, thereby improving the systems flow rate and thus the energy savings was realized by switching off one 75 kW pump during production time to achieve a power reduction of 18.5% with a payback of four months.This article presents a case study in which a cooling tower pumping system originally operating using three 75-kW centrifugal pumps to circulate ...