FEATURED ARTICLE
REDUCING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT THROUGH A UNIQUE SYSTEM DESIGN FOR RECOVERING AND REUSING ENERGY AT OUR HYDRAULIC RESEARCH CENTRE Each year, about 0.77 million units of electricity are consumed for the testing of pumps at the hydraulic research centre (HRC), Kirloskarvadi works. In the traditional method of pump testing, the operating point (head and flow) of a pump is simulated by artificially creating system resistance by throttling the flow control valve on the pump’s discharge pipe. The hydraulic energy produced by the pump (pressure head) is dissipated in overcoming the resistance offered by the valve. An energy recovery system has been
Cascade. Dec 2021 - Mar 2022
designed and installed at HRC to recover part of this energy, which would otherwise get dissipated in the valve. This system consists of a pumpas-turbine (PaT) and Induction Motor as Generator (IMAG) chosen from the standard product lines of Kirloskar Brothers Limited (KBL). The energy recovery turbine is designed to produce a continuous power output of up to 100 kW during the testing of pumps. The electrical system is designed to feed the generated power back to the grid, but
since the pump-under-test is the nearest load, the produced power gets consumed by the pump under test. Thus, the total power requirement during pump testing gets reduced by up to 100 kW. The estimated reduction in annual operating cost on account of reduction in the energy consumption shall be approximately INR 1.5 million, with the present frequency of testing on test-bed no. 1. Apart from the financial benefits, the energy recovery turbine will increase the share of renewable energy and thereby strengthen
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