Pumping iron
The vast majority of pumps and fans could be running more efficiently and saving their plant operators serious money. Brian Tinham examines equipment advances and cautionary tales
Compressed energy
Electric motors use two-thirds of all electricity consumed by industry, so any technology capable of cutting this drain on resources has got to be a good thing. Yet, despite proven and significant savings from variable speed drives (VSDs) - particularly on fan and pump control duties - they are still installed only on a tiny minority of applications.
Cooling the tube
Anyone who travels on London Underground knows that the tube is too hot, particularly on the deeper central area lines. When Transport for London's (TfL) Cooling the Tube programme director Kevin Payne tells you: "We're going to move from warm, to uncomfortable, to a place we certainly don't want to be, if heat dissipation remains unmitigated," it's clear the problem is getting acute.
Cut the energy hype
Although oil prices have come down, the recession is forcing organisations of all kinds to keep on cutting energy costs. One consequence is increasing numbers of companies seeing energy saving as a business opportunity - and hence the growing number of ferings available. But while most ideas are good and very workable, others, inevitably, are either naïve or downright fraudulent.
Going underground
What keeps London Underground's head of operational engineering awake at night? Top of Maurice Poole's list is the competence of project and maintenance engineering people - across all the professional sectors. That's not just in his own organisation, but throughout the infrastructure companies (Tubelines and Metronet, the latter now in administration), currently upgrading the network, and main contractors, such as Balfour Beatty.
Cement fan solution keeps plant in production
A design fault on a large centrifugal fan that could have caused Hanson Cement's plant in Clitheroe to stop production, due to a failure to comply with emission regulations, has been resolved by Brammer.
Vane engineering
With plant engineers' focus strictly on costs, uptime and efficiency, it's worth reviewing your pumps and fans – and what's on offer from variable speed drives and associated equipment. Brian Tinham reports