As most LNG facilities across Australia are found in semi-remote to remote locations, there is a limit to the storage space available for equipment and spare parts. This was the case at one LNG gas facility, where an associated cement works required an effective process water pressure pump solution.

According to Rudi Jahrig, Industrial Sales Engineer at Kelair Pumps Australia, the client requested pumping equipment which had a high redundancy and would require the least amount of pump spare parts.

“To adhere to the site’s requirements, we chose to install a series of uniform Lowara eSV Pump Sets with Hydrovar controllers. This meant installing single, dual and triple pump sets but fitting them all with the same pump.

Typically, if there was no limit on pump spare parts, we would have installed different pumps. However, by adjusting the pipework of the Lowara eSV pumps, we were able to adhere to both the plant’s performance duties and spare part limits,” said Mr Jahrig.

The dual and triple pump advantage

The advantage of selecting the dual and triple pump sets, says Mr Jahrig, is that if one pump within the unit fails, there will still be one or two pumps working. This allows the plant to continue to operate.

In addition to this, it was noted that the required flow rate at the cement site varied at different times, and often only one pump was needed to operate. Again, this dual or triple pump configuration would facilitate this change.

Controllers

To assure that the pumps continuously operate at the same pressure, a Xylem Hydrovar variable speed drive was fitted to each pump.

“Hydrovar variable speed drives are an intelligent control system that not only adjusts the pump motor to the required speed, but also changes the pumps’ start-up frequency to give both pumps – in the case of the dual system – the same usage,” said Mr Jahrig.

“Another advantage of using multiple pump booster sets is that they are energy saving. They only consume the amount of energy required to deliver the desired water supply.”

“Because of this, the Hydrovar variable speed controls reduce energy consumption and also protect the environment with lower CO2 emissions.”

For more information on Kelair’s supply and services in remote locations, call Rudi Jahrig on 0414 600 814 or the office on 1300 789 466.