Case study

Power Quality

Andreas Sumper,
Roberto Villafáfila,
Rodrigo Ramírez,
Paola Pezzini
January 2008

Energy Efficiency in Industrial Processes:

A case study of an automated
pneumatic waste collection
CONVENTIONAL PUMPING SYSTEM
EFFICIENCY = 31%

Throttle Pipe
INPUT OUTPUT
POWER POWER
Standard
100 Motor
coupling Pump 31

60% of
output
Efficiency

rated
Power Quality

98%
90% 77%
flow
66% 69%
 Power Quality
http://www.leonardo-energy.org

1 Outline
Nowadays, energy is one of the most important prime materials in industrial processes. Highly automated industries
need to have a reliable power supply and efficient energy utilisation in order to maintain both a high productivity and
to be competitive. On the other hand, in industry automation, designing the automation process has an important
influence on the later energy consumption. In the following case study an automated pneumatic waste collection
process was studied for its energy efficiency assessment and its improvement.

2 Energy efficiency in pumps and ventilators

Electrical motor-driven systems are widespread in industrial facilities. These systems consist of an electrical motor-
drive mechanism, that is, a driving mechanism - pumping, ventilation, compression, etc. - which incorporates
an electric motor and, sometimes, a variable speed drive (VSD) that controls the perfomance of the motor.
Electrical motors are used in a large variety of industrial processes with different applications, like in mills, conveyor
belts, compressors, centrifuges, lifts, testbenches… Moreover, there are differents kinds of electrical motors although
induction motor is prevalent in industry processes. On the other hand, pump and fan applications are very common
and they represent the 60% of motor utilisation. For such systems, there is a large technical and economic potential
for energy savings.
The global efficiency of an electrical motor-driven system is affected by several factors, such as:
External: motor and facility sizing, power quality and maintenance practices.
Internal: efficiency and speed control of the motor, mechanical transmission and end-use efficiency (pump,
fan, compressor, etc.).
VSDs, also called frequency power electronic converters, are used to control motor speed through varying the
frequency of the motor power supply in order to meet the conditions imposed by the mechanism or load. In this way
it will be possible to work always near to the optimum operation point.
Specifically, as it has been mentioned before, in cases of fluid pumping and ventilation (pumps and fans), if a flow
regulation is needed it is possible to obtain a huge saving when the regulation margin of the needed flow is quite
wide and operation hours of the set are quite long.

CONVENTIONAL PUMPING SYSTEM

EFFICIENCY = 31%

Throttle Pipe
INPUT OUTPUT
POWER POWER
Standard
100 Motor
coupling Pump 31

60% of
output
Efficiency

rated
98%
90% 77%
flow
66% 69%

Figure 1. Conventional Pumping System Efficiency = 31%.

2
 Power Quality
http://www.leonardo-energy.org

ENERGY EFFICIENT PUMPING SYSTEM

SYSTEM EFFICIENCY = 72%

Low Friction
Pipepipe
INPUT VSD OUTPUT
POWER Variable High More POWER
Standard
43 speed
MotorDrive
Efficiency
coupling Pump
coupling Efficient 31
Motor pump

60% of
Efficiency

output
96% 95% 99% 90% rated
88% flow

Figure 2. Energy Efficient Pumping System. System Efficiency = 72%.

Figure 1 and Figure 2 show two different electrical motor-driven systems, in this particular case two pumping
systems which require the same output power. Figure 1 is made of conventional equipment (motor, mechanical
transmission, pump, throttle and pipe). Its total efficiency is set to 31%. On the other hand, Figure 2 represents a more
efficient pumping system since some parts of the conventional system are energy-efficiency upgraded, such as using
an efficient motor, a more efficient pump, a low-friction pipe, along with installing a VSD. Therefore, the global process
efficiency of a 72% is obtained.
Thus, Figure 1 and Figure 2 show thast it is possible to reduce energy losses that appear in mechanical and electrical
equipments of electrical motor-driven systems that are installed in the industry. The figures also give an idea of how
it is possible to diminish these losses placing frequency power electronic converters. In fact, it can be observed that an
energy efficiency superior to the 50% can be reached when comparing the performance of these two cases.

2.1 Energy efficiency in processes that require flow regulation

There are different strategies in order to control fluid flow regulation. Following traditional approaches, On/Off control
and throttle-valves, are compared with speed control.

2.1.1 On/Off Control vs. Speed Control

On/Off control is a very easy way to control liquid or gas flows. The on/off control is a simple control as for example
in oven thermostats. When the oven is cooler than the set-point temperature, the heater is turned-on at maximum
power. And once the oven is hotter than the set-point temperature the heater is switched-off completely.

3
 Power Quality
http://www.leonardo-energy.org

On-Off vs. VSD

120

100
Power consumption

80

On-Off
60
VSD Drive
40

20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

% flow

Figure 3. On /Off vs. VSD example using a pump motor of 30 kW, operating during 5000 h/year:
Energy saving: 51000 kWh/year, CO2 emission reduction: 25500 kg/year.

2.1.2 Throttle-valves vs. speed control

Common practice in industry is that flow control is made with throttle-valves. In this method, the flow is limited by
the valve that constrictions in one point the pipe where the gas or liquid flows. In this situation, the motor and pump
are running more or less at the same power, what makes the system more inefficienct if the energy consumption
is refered to the gas or liquid flow as Figure 4 proves.

Throttling vs. VSD

120

100
Power Consumption

80

Throttling
60
VSD Drive

40

20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% flow

Figure 4. Throttling vs. VSD example using a pump motor of 30 kW, operating during 5000 h/year:
Energy saving: 58500 kWh/year, CO2 emission reduction: 29250 kg/year.

4
 Power Quality
http://www.leonardo-energy.org

Figure 5 shows the advantage of realizing a control liquid flow through a motor controlled by a VSD. If a flow-throttling
is performed, then the efficiency decreases from a 78% to a 60% (from point A to point C), while a speed control can
lead to the pump through its efficiency curve maintaining its efficiency (from point A to point B).

C
A

Figure 5. Example of a pump motor of 100 kW and 5000 h/year: Energy saving: 85000 kWh/year,
CO2 emission reduction: 42500 kg/year.

3 Case Study: automated pneumatic waste collection

3.1 Automated pneumatic waste collection
Waste collection by tracks in urban areas can be complicated due to the high density of population, bad accessibility,
traffic jam and day-time removal may not be compatible with the commercial hours. The nocturne waste removal can
not be done due to complain about the noise and the smell. An innovative solution can be the automated pneumatic
waste collection. Figure 6 shows the principle of this system.
There are different waste deposits distributed over a city area. All those deposits are connected to a suburban pipe-
network which connects them to a centralized waste deposit. There could be several of such centralized wate deposits
according to the size of the city. The removal of the waste is done by the means of air flows.

Distributed
waste
deposits

Ventilator

Centralized
waste
deposit

Figure 6. Principle of a automated pneumatic waste collection system.

5
 Power Quality
http://www.leonardo-energy.org

The activation of the removal of the waste can be done by valves (Figure 7) that are opened one by one. These valves
let fall the waste in the pipe system, where the air flow drives the waste up to the centralized waste deposit. The time
of travel, so energy consumption, depends on the distance that the waste has to cover.

Valve Valve
open closed

Fan

Centralized
waste
deposit

Figure 7. Automated pneumatic waste collection system operation mode.

3.2 Energy efficiency study

The above described system can be operated in the following modes:
1. By scheduled collections. In this operation mode, the deposits are emptied several times a day following
a schedule based on statistics of the amount of waste within the deposits. All deposits are emptied at the same time
following a sequence (in this case the farthest deposit first and the nearest last; from the centralized deposit).
2. By continuous operation with individual deposit activation. In this operation mode, each deposit has
sensors which indicate that the deposits are full. If so, the deposit is emptied. In order to save energy, the
fans are operated at 10% rated speed in the stand-by mode.
3. By continuous operation with individual deposit activation and one minimum removal a day. The
main disadvantage of operation mode 2 is that a deposit has to be full in order to be emptied. In order to
avoid that deposit that has a low waste volume are not emptied every day that could cause complains about
the smell, every deposit should be emptied at least once a day.
4. By continuous operation with individual deposit activation and removal coordination. Individual
activation of the removal makes operation mode 2 may not be so efficient. In order to improve the efficiency,
the removal of the full deposits will be done when at least 10 deposits are full. As well as in operation mode
3, every deposit should be emptied at least once a day.

6
 Power Quality
http://www.leonardo-energy.org

5. By continuous operation with individual deposit activation and removal coordination by sectors. This
operation mode is similar to operation mode 4. Normally the pipe network is divided in sectors in order to
move only the air that will be necessary. So, the deposits are grouped in sectors and if one deposit of the
sector is full, the whole sector will be emptied regardless that the other deposits of the sector are not full.
As well as in operation mode 3 and 4, every deposit should be emptied at least once a day.
The objective of this case study was to determine which one of these operation modes will be more efficient. Operation
mode 1 is typical application of On/Off control mode, where there is no regulation of the air-flow and so energy
consumption is constant during the removal. The regulation of the air-flow, if necessary, can be done by throttling.
Operation mode 2 has the advantage that the air-flow is regulated by the velocity of the fan by means of a frequency
power electronic converter. Operation modes 3 to 5 are combinations of mode 1 and 2. The main question was: Which
one of these operation modes is more energy efficient?

3.3 Plant characteristics

The studied plant is working with the following plant characteristics:
• Induction motor: 2x110 kW
• Fan: 2x 84,5 kW/ 23.760 m3/s
• Number of deposits: 301
• Number of sectors 63
• Diameter of the tubes: 25 cm
• Minimum air flow: 30 m/s
• Farthest deposit from the central deposit: 1.000 m

3.4 Efficiency determination methodology

The process is divided in 6 different sequences. Every sequence of the removal cycle was measured and the results
are shown in Table 1.

Time Description Duration

t1 Time to start-up 30 s
t2 Time to open the deposit valve 15 s
t3 Delay of the valve 7s
t4 Delay necessary between the operation of two valves 25 s
t5 Time to change from one section to other 30 s
t6 Travel time of the farthest point of the network 33 s
Table 1. Timing of a single removal cycle
After determining the cycle times, the energy consumed during the different sequences was measured. The
energy consumption can be separated in two parts: first the start-up energy consumption and, second, the energy
consumption during the operation (Equation 1).
Wsum = Wstart +Woperation (Equation 1)
The time of operation is depending on the mode of operation, but always it is a sum of a certain combination of the
times of Table 1. The difference between the operation modes consists in the combination of those times. The travel
time of the individual deposits can be calculated propotionally to the distance between the waste deposits and the
centralized deposit (Equation 2).
5
t operation = ∑c t n n + t travel (Equation 2)
n=1

where, cn is a factor depending on the operation mode.

7
 Power Quality
http://www.leonardo-energy.org

Therefore, the overall time of operation can be calculated by making the sum of the operation time and the start-up
times.
Finally, the operation energy consumption Woperation can be expressed as in Equation 3.

t operation
Woperation = Pmotor ⋅ (Equation 3)
3600 s⋅h−1

In operation modes from 2 to 5 it is important to take in account the probability that one deposit could be full.
Therefore, statistic study of the plant was made and the probability of each deposit was determined.

3.5 Results of the different operation modes and discussion

The results of the energy efficiency assessment for the five operation modes described in section 3.2 are shown
in Table 2.

Operation mode Consumption (kWh) Time (s)

Scheduled collections 1.394,62 9.545
Continous operation and individual deposit
3.991,36 64.144
activation
Continous operation with individual deposit
4.108,84 66.032
activation and one minimum removal a day
Continous operation with individual deposit
1.433,72 20.635
activation and removal coordination
Continous operation with individual deposit
1.280,96 1.0840
activation and removal coordination by sectors
Table 2. Results of the energy consumption calculations of operation modes from section 3.2.
It can be seen that there is a considerable difference between the five operation modes. The most efficient mode is the
Continous operation with individual deposit activation and removal coordination by sectors (mode 5), which
is the most sophisticated technical solution regarding control and system automation. On the other hand, on the
second place, we find the leastest sophisticated technological solution, which are the Scheduled collections (mode
1). The most inefficient mode, which has both the most energy consumption and operation time, is the Continous
operation with individual deposit activation and one minimum removal a day (mode 3), which needs at least the
same performance in automation as the most efficient solution.

4 Conclusions
One of the biggest potential of energy efficiency in industries can be found in pumps and fans. In standard situations,
well known solutions can be applied and considerable energy savings can be reached. For non-standard processes,
it is very important to study the whole process in detail. As this case study shows, the way how to program different
process sequences can reach the same or better performance with less energy consumption. Normally, more
automation enables energy saving, nevertheless it is necessary to study with detail the process and re-engineering
it in order to reach the energy efficiency goal.

This publication is subject to copyright and a disclaimer. Please refer to the Leonardo ENERGY website.