South Africa’s energy-intensive industrial stakeholders, including mining houses, water boards, refineries and State-owned utilities, are becoming increasingly aware of pump system optimisation, as a result of the Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) improvement project, says United Nations Industrial Development Organisation- (Unido-) contracted national pump expert Harry Rosen.

The project, an initiative implemented jointly by the Unido and the National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa (NCPC-SA), was established in 2010. It is a collaboration between the South African government through the departments of Trade and Industry and Energy, the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the UK Depart- ment for International Development, with the aim of improving the capacity of South African industries to use avail- able energy resources more efficiently and productively.

Rosen says the IEE improvement project is alerting pump system end- users to how much energy is being used unnecessarily, adding that, while he has been involved in trying to change the pumps industry in terms of energy efficiency for almost eight years, only an increment of success has been achieved to date.

He adds that, owing to changes in market conditions, the mining industry now has a strong focus on increasing the efficiency of its operations.

“Mines, generally, use large pumping systems extensively, resulting in significant energy consumption and, with South Africa’s constrained electricity generation capacity, they need their pumps to run more efficiently, regardless of whether they want to be seen as green and environment friendly,” he adds.

The IEE project is currently conducting its second round of expert-level training courses, which includes a series of training programmes aimed at qualifying suitable candidates in the assessment of energy systems, including pumping systems.

This round of the pumping systems expert training course started in August 2012, with training in Gauteng and the Western Cape scheduled for completion in May. There are a total of 24 trainees taking part.

Trainees participating in the training courses – who are typically engineers and consultants – are provided with the knowledge and skills to conduct energy assessments and develop appropriate strategies for reducing the energy intensity of an organisation.

During the second round of training, which is focused on improving the efficiency of pumping systems, 13 expert-level trainees were tasked with conducting an energy assessment at platinum-group metals miner Impala Platinum’s (Implats’) Springs-based base metals refinery from August 15 to 17, 2012.

The trainees were tasked with deter- mining the energy-consumption status of the refinery’s ammonium sulphate plant cooling water circuit – one of the many such circuits at the facility – under super- vision of local and international trainers.

Their assessment of the plant’s pumping system involved collecting, analysing and collating specific data on four pumps in the circuit; providing recommendations to reduce electricity consumption; as well as estimating the potential savings, should the recommendations be imple- mented.

“The cooling system at Implats runs several pumps at once to circulate cooled water from the cooling tower to where it is needed in heat exchangers to condense saturated steam,” explains Rosen, pointing out that the quantity of cooling required by the plant correlates with the season in which it is operating.

Consequently, the cooling requirement in winter and at night is lower, owing to cooler temperatures, compared with the plant’s cooling requirements in summer.

The pumps at Implats, however, were constantly operating at the same rate and the expert-level trainees also identified that one of the pumps was inefficient.

Rosen tells Engineering News that improving the efficiency of components – replacing or refurbishing the malfunctioning pump – will save Implats between 5% and 10% of its pumping costs, which means the company will save between R25 000 and R30 000 a year.

He points out, however, that improving the efficiency of the system will save the company between 40% and 50%, which equates to R140 000 a year.

“Often, the changes required are inexpensive – it’s just about understanding and meeting the requirements of the system. Therefore, while the pumps in a particular system are all running effi- ciently, it might not be necessary to run them all. So, if you can use fewer pumps to match the demand or reduce the capa- city of the pump, bigger savings can be achieved, which is what the IEE project calls Energy Systems Optimisation (ESO),” he explains.

“This is one of the objectives of the IEE project’s ESO focus – to alert companies that they are not going to save as much money by only refurbishing a pump without properly understanding their pump system as a whole.”

Cumulative Results and Capital Investment

IEE project manager for Implats and expert-level trainee Faith Mkhacwa says, while the initial step in improving the efficiency of a pump system might entail behavioural and operational changes, as was the case with Implats, the next step could be more capital intensive.

She adds, however, that implementing the cheaper, simpler option first will generate savings that can be invested in more capital-intensive changes. Implats, for instance, will start off with zero capital investment and savings of up to R140 000 a year.

These savings may be used to refurbish the damaged pump, which will, in turn, increase the pumping efficiency by up to 15%, resulting in an additional saving of up to R70 000 a year.

Mkhacwa points out that State-owned power utility Eskom’s Integrated Demand Management rebate programme incentivises companies to implement energy efficiency programmes

Outlook

The NCPC-SA tells Engineering News that the newly qualified local experts developed through the IEE project will continue to apply their knowledge and will train additional experts beyond 2014, when the international involvement in the project has run its course. Energy management systems- and ESO-capacity building will, therefore, continue through the NCPC-SA.

“The NCPC-SA is working towards the continuity of the project, which I think is important. “The centre, therefore, needs to ensure that the experts it has trained will continue to operate in the field and share their knowledge with other potential pump experts,” he adds.

Rosen was initially approached by the IEE project and subsequently contracted by Unido as a local expert, but has since also co-presented training programmes with US-based pump expert and trainer Gunnar Hovstadius.

Rosen highlights the finding of suitable training sites for expert-level training as one of the many challenges he has had to face as a trainer, adding that the programme requires sites with identifiable potential problems.

He also mentions that convincing companies to implement the suggested systematic changes has proved chal- lenging.

Rosen is, however, optimistic about the second round of assessments and believes that the IEE project is experiencing better buy-in from companies, probably as a result of successful imple- mentations in the first round.

“I’ve seen a dramatic difference in the approach of the companies we’re dealing with this year. “They’re not just talking about changing but they’re implementing the changes that we’ve suggested and I think that’s greatly owing to the IEE project,” he says.