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Reports suggest that sewer blockages in the UK caused by wet wipes being flushed down toilets are costing water companies more than £100 million (€113.5 million), amounting to approximately 200,000 blockages every year. About 80% of all the material retrieved from sewer blockages is wet wipes. The country’s water companies could – and should– instead be... reinvesting this money into their infrastructure and overall service provision. [read more]

In the power production or oil and gas industries, centrifugal pumps for fire protection or condensate systems and other large pumps are critical to operations. However, when unprotected, these units are at greater risk. Operation of these pumps below the minimum flow condition, specified by the manufacturer, can cause overheating, wreaking catastrophic damage to a pumping station. A twin threat,... cavitation, can also occur because of operation below the minimum flow condition. [read more]

In chemical manufacturing facilities around the world, one of the only constants is the need to adapt to process changes and operational influences. However, because fluid dynamics systems are so complex, the projects required to implement necessary changes are often high-risk. If projects aren’t well engineered, they can even end up reducing efficiency and performance.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the water industry in the UK. Whatever the latest buzzword being used to describe it – water 4.0, connectivity, digital transformation, Industry 4.0, 4IR – there are very few companies who aren’t aware of its existence. In fact, across the UK, the digital revolution is moving forwards at an impressive rate.

Providers of water management services strive to help businesses reduce costs and improve the efficiency of their water and wastewater infrastructures. However, their success depends on effectively tackling the challenge of water pressure regulation and head loss. All too often, this entails having heavy and cumbersome technology, which restricts the installation options and creates unwanted... operational challenges. [read more]

Every year, oil and gas producers grapple with a very costly issue related to production, transportation and processing operations. Volatile pollutants and greenhouse gases, such as methane, escape from the valves at extraction sites, pipelines and refineries. These fugitive emissions from valves account for 60% of the total methane emissions from a refinery, with as much as 80% of this leakage... occurring at the valve stem, despite the development of low-emissions valves for process control functions. [read more]

Today, almost 70% of all standardised pumps operate at a constant motor speed and are usually combined with IE3 asynchronous motors. Rather than continuing with this age-old approach, pump manufacturer KSB offers an alternative: a smart drive solution. In addition to reducing the complexity of variants, it also increases planning reliability for the engineering contractor and will be of... particular interest to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). [read more]

When it comes to pumps, there are many challenges associated with precious metal mining applications. For instance, there is a high degree of difficulty in handling abrasive paste with varying density over long distances and without frequent breakdowns. This difficulty is compounded when chemicals are added to the paste. However, peristaltic hose pumps, such as Bredel models available from... Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG), are proving themselves highly adept at overcoming these obstacles. [read more]

When an organisation in the petroleum, petrochemical or gas industry specifies a centrifugal pump, it will generally rely on the standard known as API 610, and for some of the ancillary equipment, API 682. API is an acronym for the American Petroleum Institute, a body that develops technical standards for oil and gas industries. Given the demanding nature of oil and gas applications, such as oil... processing and refining facilities and gas processing plants, API 610 and API 682 are necessarily strict. [read more]