IMPROVEMENT IN EFFICIENCY BY APPLICATION OF COATINGS. DG Dhole Asst. General Manager Kirloskar Brothers Limited Kirloskarvadi, 416 308 Maharashtra Dgdhole@kov.kbl.co.in Cost of energy for pumping water constitutes an important element of water supply systems. | ‘Apart from industries, town /city water supply schemes are the biggest consumer of electricity. | ‘As we know that the cost of energy for pumping water amounts to 90-95 % of total cost over a life time of the equipment. Hence energy conservation is a prime concern of any organisation. | State & Central Governments have realised this fact & they are coming with various regulations very soon. Kerala & Gujarat states have made energy audits compulsory for all the industries/ | organisation in their states. ur nation has ambitious plan to invest in additional power generation to bridge the gap between supply and demand. But our capability to invest is limited. So we have a duty towards our nation to avoid all kinds of wastage & drains, particularly of a commodity as costly as power. In this endeavour, we must, not only use “energy efficient” systems, but also maintain & upgrade the equipment so that they are used to their optimum efficiency for a longer time. Pumping systems account for nearly 20-25% of total energy consumption. Some studies have shown that about 25% of energy consumed can be saved through equipment & control system changes. In recent years there has been greater awareness in top management in organisation, both private & public. Awareness of the need to conserve & inculcate efficiency in usage across all levels is on the rise. We have studied number of water supply schemes and in most of the pumping systems itis observed that pumps operate at other than best efficiency point or the duty point for which pump was selected. In such cases, user normally throttles the delivery valve and operates the pump leading to inefficient ‘operation of pump. There are various conventional methods available through which energy conservation can be achieved. * Operating pumps at, or near, it's best efficiency point «Regularly maintaining the equipment e.g. pumps, valves, piping systems, motors & other control systems etc. ‘+ Improving power factor and so on. In any pumping system, over the years, the hydraulic passages of casings and impeller vane shape gets damaged due to wear, tear and corrosion, also the clearance in wearing rings increases substantially. All these damages lead to head & flow losses and ultimately deteriorate hydraulic performance. Due to this deterioration of performance the power consumption increases putting pressure on energy demand due to inefficient operation. of pump, One of the cost-effective methods to operate pump efficiently is to improve the surface finish of the pump internal areas by the application of composite organic coatings. These coatings can be used to improve, drastically, the internal surface finish of pump and they can also be used to restore the hydraulic passages, near to original one, for the pumps, which are already in service. The specially formulated composite coating, known as “Fluiglide”, help ILC - Pune - All india Semimar on Emerging Trends in Energy Management of Pumping Systems ,2002_}7_]]to achieve very low coefficient of friction as ‘compared to metal substrate. With this, not only performance is improved over existing one but the life of equipment is also increased, Over a period of last 5-6 years number of pumps have been applied with Fluigtide systems. These systems have following attributes: + They limit the effect of mechanical damage. + They resist chemically aggressive constituents in the service environment. + They provide a barrier to prevent permeation of corrosion ions to the substrate. + They provide low coefficient of friction Most of the pumps, medium and large size, can be effectively treated with polymer resin systems, both old and new. Before deciding the specific polymer system for the pump under consideration its operating and service conditions are studied. Based on the operating and service conditions an appropriate resin system is selected to give protection to the substrate from corrosion and Jor erosion. This resin system is then overcoated with Fluiglide.” These coatings are known to be effective by two established qualities: * The reduction in surface roughness. (Refer Illustration No. 1) + The hydrophobic nature of coating. (Refer Illustration No. 2) «The reduction in surface roughness : It is well known that surface roughness has substantial bearing on flow characteristics. A rough surface introduces micro or even macro turbulent eddies in the boundary layer causing an increase in velocity gradient. This velocity gradient creates resistance in passage of flow. With the application of coatings surface roughness is reduced by manifolds, thereby India Semimar on Emerging Trends in Energy Management of Pumping allowing the flow to be comparatively less turbulent. Due to this phenomenon overall performance i.e. head and flow characteristics increases. For example the surface roughness. of a cast iron substrate is Ra 18.8 microns while surface roughness of Fluiglide coating is as low as Ra 0.4 to 0.08 microns (Refer illustration no. 1). Due to lower coefficient of friction, between the fluid and the coating and hydrophobic nature of the coating pump consumes less power and directly contributing to enhancement of efficiency. * The hydrophobic nature of coating: When the attractive forces between the substrate and the water molecules exceed the cohesive forces in the fluids, then the water or other media will spread across the surface until a state of equilibrium is reached between the two. Therefore, where the surface energy is high, low contact angles will be achieved and where surface energy or attraction is low, the high contact angles will result in large gradients in velocity between the mainstream flow and the boundary layer. In case of aqueous media, materials which have low surface attraction are hydrophobic and repel water, will result in lower frictional losses than surfaces which are highly attractive to water molecules. As all common untreated metals have relatively high attraction energies wetting out of the surface with aqueous media and the consequent low contact angle is readily achieved. A substantial reduction in boundary layer friction can therefore be achieved by utilizing a coating, which is hydrophobic. The effects of these are demonstrated in illustration no. 2. Ithas been observed that efficiency gains from coating are presented in two different ways: + An increase in flow (water output) for the same input energy (electrical consumption), * A reduction in input energy for the same water output. Itis possible to obtain the combination of these two extremes and this is usually the case. The actual improvements achieved depend onvarious factors including the specific speed of the pump. With this possible improvement in performance of the pump it is essential to demonstrate the improvement to customer. The method of demonstration is a subject of discussion and understanding between the purchaser and supplier. Most of the customers would like to see the reduction in their energy bill Generally a laboratory test, before and after the application of coating and a refurbishment, will be able to give the best demonstration on the effectiveness of the job. From the comparison of the parameters achieved before and after coating the conclusion of effectiveness can be drawn perfectly. Sometimes for clients, itis not possible to send the pump to factory for testing. Thus the test of the pump, in as it is condition has to be done at site. Also the test after the refurbishment and coating job has to be done at site Depending upon the application, either the customer is able to use extra head and flow effectively and be satisfied with the figure of lower specific power consumption or he needs to see lower power consumption for the same effective output. Butseldom, site layouts, suitable for a scientific site test are available, and hence measurement of head and flow in absolute terms with reasonable accuracy is not possible. Under such circumstances discussions with customer for demonstration of effectiveness of coating becomes necessary. Atsite generally flow measurement in absolute terms poses a big problem and problem to some extent exists for accurately measuring the head. To overcome this situation, use of the fact is made that the instruments do give some indication of flow and head, though not reasonably accurate in absolute terms. The indications before and after, can be used for ‘comparison purpose. Thus before application of coating the flowmeter and the pressure gauges were giving some indication and consuming some power input to motor. After application of coating, for the same indications. in flowmeter and pressure gauges if the power input to motor is less then, it can be concluded that the demonstration of effectiveness of the coating has been done. Thus demonstration of effectiveness of coating & refurbishment job has to be carefully decided with the client prior to commencement of the contract work. Our company has done a lot of experimentation by coating small as well as medium and large size pumps and testing them. After the study we have established that low flow pumps having delivery sizes upto 100-mm size are not amenable to efficiency enhancement by coating. But pumps of delivery sizes larger than 100 mm and impellers with outlet widths larger than 20 mm show a remarkable improvement in efficiency, and discharge rates and head development. The life of coating is generally more than 5 years. The coating can get damaged only by external causes like foreign matter with sharp comers and edges getting into the pump and passing through it or by operation of the pump under cavitation due to inadequate available NPSH or cavitation due to re-circulation during operation at part capacities. In many pumping stations it is observed that pump operates at cavitating conditions due to throttling of the delivery valve or due to inadequate available NPSH or cavitation due to re-circulation during operation at part capacities. It is welknown that due to cavitation the area on the suction passages of the impeller gets damaged. After application of energy efficient Fluiglide system the pump performance is improved with low power consumption for the reasons. indicated above. In case of cavitating condition of the pump the coating applied remains intact except on the areas which are prone to effect of cavitation. With this condition, the power reduction achieved due to coating continues to be same. This is due to the reason that the damaged area due to cavitation is very small area as compared to the combined area of 4 | | | |The damaged area can be repaired during the routine shutdown or preventive shutdown by use of our coating, Case Studies Following are the few cases, which highlights the gain in efficiency and the amount of energy saved. = Case Study No. 01: Background: 250-mm size split case pumps, 2 nos., are running in city water supply pump house in western Maharashtra for providing water to residents, Description: One pump was tested at factory in test faboratory prior to application of coating. Then pump casing and impeller were refurbished and application of coating is carried out with topcoat of Fluigiide system. After application of coating pump was tested again. Performance Parameters: | Performance Priorto | After appication | Parameters appicaton of | "of Coating Coating system Benefits: Due to application of composite coatings there will be substantial saving in energy. Saving in input power S BOW. "Annual power saving, WAH — | 4752000KAn (24 tes,300 days operation) It is expected that this annual saving will continue for 3 years of operation. Hence the actual annual saving over a period of three years will be much higher. TELPLG - Pune - Alla Sema on Emerging Trends in Energy Hanogeret of Punping Sysene, 2002 [0] Refer photograph no.1, which shows pump components after corrocoating. Also refer photographs nos.2 & 3 which shows typical components of pumps after corrocoating Case Study No. 02: This is the case where customer was not having the facility to measure the flow of the pump. Hence it was decided to use the delivery gauge reading as the basis for comparing the parameters. Background: 200-mm size split case pumps, 4 nos., are running in pump house in West Bengal for providing drinking water to city. Description: These pumps were brought to the factory & performance test was conducted, on one pump, in as it is condition. After performance test, the pumps were taken up for refurbishment & application of composite resin coating system along with the application of Fluiglide system. After the application of coating the one pump was tested for performance. One pump was also tested at site before bringing to factory and after putting into service at site Following table shows the comparison of parameters prior to & after application of coating system. Both these pefformance test, were witnessed by client's representative. With the application of these coatings the achieved efficiency will be retained for long period compared to non-coated pump due to characteristics of coatings mentioned earlier in this paper. ‘Table No 2 Performance Parameters: A st Laboratory | Priortoappiaion ot | Afr appication | ‘of Coaing | system Coaing system Few US Total Headn Mato — [Re |Punp notin \ Ea ‘+ Impeller was trimmed to achieve the required head at site. Client was running the pump with discharge valve in throttled condition.Table No.3 Performance Parameters: At Site - a ea | 830 Fon WU achat Saino) pessoe re | yea a ** The instantaneous power was measured with electronic power meter and the readings noted were converted to full load rpm. Benefits: ‘Due to application of composite coatings there will be substantial saving in energy. Refer tothe laboratory test. ‘Saving in input power “Annual power saving, RWh | = (24 hrs 330 days operation) ‘Annual saving with Rate per| ~ unt Rs. 4.50 20.00 KW 7158 400.00 RW Re. 742,800.00 There were 4 pumps in the pump house & annual saving will amount approximately to Rs. 28.00 lacs. It is expected that this annual saving will continue for 3 years of operation. Hence the actual annual saving over a period of three years will be much higher. There are three vertical turbine pumps, 250- mm delivery size, in the same pump house. The details of site tests are as below: Table No. 4 Performance Parameters: on ae ae soe a - t 008 {s500| we “* The instantaneous, power was measured with electronic power meter and the readings noted were converted to full load rpm, area of pipes. TELPLC - Pune - linda Sena on Emerging Teds n Energy Mrasenent of Pungng tena, 700) fT] Benefits: Due to application of composite coatings there will be substantial saving in energy. 2683 KW 212495.6 Kh Saving in input power = ‘Annual power saving, Kin] ~ (24,330 daye operation ‘Annual saving with Rate per unt] — | Rs. 95622160 Rs, 4.50 There were 3 pumps in the pump house & annual saving will amount approximately to Rs 29.00 lacs. It is expected that this annual saving will continue for 3 years of operation. Hence the actual annual saving over a period of three years will be much higher. Conclusion : During last 5-6 years our company has used Fluiglide coating systems on hundreds of medium and large size pumps resulting in efficiency gain of 1-3 points depending on specific speed of the pump, in case of new pumps. This gain in efficiency was over and above designed one. Also hundreds of old pumps have been refurbished to restore the shapes of hydraulic passages near to its original one and application of Fluiglide systems have resulted into gain in efficiency of 4-6 points and improvement in head — flow characteristics over its existing one during the operation in the plant. As the efficiency enhancement achieved with Fluiglide treatment is expected to be retained for a period of at least 3 years, the benefits achieved is expected to continue for a inimum period of 3 years. This has been established by inspecting the pumps after opening them during shutdown after a period of 4-5 years. The concept of composite resin systems could be advantageously used for internal lining of pipelines to combat corrosion on internal surface of pipes, which takes place mainly due to depositions of chlorides and sulphates. The depositions over a period of time increase frictional head by reducingCost Iron Ro 18.8 Um Mildly Rusted Steel Ro 5.0 Um Fluiglide ‘E* Ro 0.4 Um Flviglide Re 0.08 Uni Roughness Amplitude of Selected Surtaces- ILLUSTRATION NO. 01 DIFFERENCE IN DROPLET CONTACT ANGLE llustration No. 2 'Semimar on Emerging Trends in Eneray Management of Pumping Systems , 2002 [52Photograph of Pump j Components after Coating (Photograph No. 1) Photograph of Casing after Coating (Photograph No. 2) Photograph of Impeller after Coating " (Photograph No 3) [TELPLC - Pune «Alina Serer on Emerging Tend n Energy anagenen of Punging Seton 202]