ABB pumps up water sustainability with smart technologies

Few resources are as vital to our health and well-being as clean water and sanitation. What we easily take for granted would not be possible without myriad sophisticated technologies – to be found from water extraction and purification plants, through pumping and delivery, to the efficient removal of wastewater and its processing.

ABB supplies many of the components and technologies of our water and waste-water networks, including grid connections and protection, drivetrains for pumps and monitoring and control systems.

In many parts of the world, water is a scarce resource. Even where this is not the case, energy must typically be expended in purifying and pumping it, meaning every drop of water wasted also involves energy being wasted. Detecting and repairing leakages is vital to upholding and improving the sustainability of our water supply. Measuring the lowest flows is essential in addressing one of the biggest challenges facing the industry - detecting leaks when they are small. Monitoring systems quantify flows within a water network, and help localize leakages, permitting a more time-consuming and cost-effective deployment of repair crews. Monitoring also helps understand usage patterns and thus better plan operations and future investment. 

With flow measurement being vital to the health of water networks, the flowmeters themselves must be as reliable and as possible, requiring minimal repairs or inspections. 

Using Faraday’s law for flowmeters

The key to reliability is the absence of moving parts. Furthermore, a flowmeter should not obstruct the flow of the water, and its own power consumption should be low. This is just the job for an electromagnetic flowmeter. A flowmeter uses Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction to quantify the flow of liquid.  As part of the process, the (conductive) liquid flows through a magnetic field, and induces a voltage in the same way that a dynamo would. This voltage can be measured, and the flow rate calculated from it. 

Efficiently powering the pumps

Another important ABB contribution to water networks is efficiently powering the pumps.  With every drop of water requiring energy to pump, the electric motors and drives that power the pumps need to be as energy efficient as possible, while also providing high reliability, often under harsh conditions such as moist and corrosive atmospheres and extreme climatic conditions.

Many legacy water networks run their pumps at a fixed speed. They use variable throttles to slow the water to the desired flow. This is a waste of energy. A variable-speed drive (VSD) controls the motor to the precise speed and torque required, while also providing monitoring functions with precise information on the flow and on their own operation. Such VSDs are designed to be easy to install and configure, and offer functionalities specifically tailored to pumping operations.

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