Rightsizing booster pumps to save €121k a year in wasted energy

SAM4 Energy identified a classic mismatch between pump size and system flow that was annually consuming 813 MWh more than it needed to.

SAM4 Energy was installed on three 450 kW booster pumps that ran simultaneously in a chemical production process. After analyzing the pumps’ operational data, SAM4 identified consistently suboptimal performance on the far left of the pump curve for all three pumps. This not only wasted energy; it also sped up wear and tear on the pumps, which if sustained would increase the need for maintenance and repairs and ultimately shorten the pumps’ lifetime.

All three pumps spent most of their time operating well away from their best efficiency point, in an area of the pump curve known to cause cavitation and shorten seal and bearing life (in addition to wasting significant energy).

This operational behavior, with each pump running at only 56% of its rated power, suggested that the pumps were oversized for the system’s desired flow. Our Energy team advised the customer to perform a life cycle analysis, comparing the capital expense, operational expense, and maintenance cost of correctly sized, more efficiently designed pumps to the cost of the existing pumps’ energy consumption, operational losses, maintenance costs and probable shorter lifetime.

Once implemented, the installation of pumps with best efficiency points closer to system duty will save the customer up to 349 metric tons in carbon emissions and €121,000 in wasted energy per year.