IN CONVERSATION WITH
“Danfoss’ design configuration is like
assembling Lego blocks” Responding flexibly to water crises, maximising energy recovery and accommodating to modular concept facilities are Danfoss’ approaches to support the region in reducing water security, according to Lee HoJae , regional sales manager, Asia-Pacific, Danfoss High Pressure Pumps.
By Amira Yunos
Next, energy efficiency must be maximised to provide competitive energy consumption per unit production volume. Compared to its competitors, the seawater desalination reverse osmosis (RO) skid using Danfoss high pressure pumps and energy recovery devices shows a specific power consumption (SPC) of approximately 2kwh/m 3 at 60bar. “This boasts the highest efficiency among existing solutions in the world,” Lee said. “Moreover, this level of efficiency is maintained even in partial load operation, so no competitor can match it.” Moreover, Danfoss high pressure pump — APP — is an axial piston type volumetric pump that is said to show uniformly high efficiency across all operating capacities. “Due to the nature of the technology, the efficiency of centrifugal pumps is bound to drop when the flow rate is low, and when the operating point is far from the best efficiency point (BEP) area, efficiency decline is inevitable, making it vulnerable to partial load operation,” said Lee. “Danfoss energy recovery device, iSave, also boasts the highest level of efficiency as it is a pressure exchange type energy recovery device.” Third, a compact and standardised general-purpose product configuration must be presented so that it can be applied to the increasing number of modular concept facilities. “Danfoss produces [a variety] of the most compact size products relative to capacity, so one can easily design the
Danfoss MPE70 (Image: Danfoss)
DANFOSS SOLUTIONS TO THE WATER SECTOR’S PRESSING PROBLEMS When asked about the pressing challenges in the water industry, Lee identified three main problems that Danfoss has the solutions to. “First, it must be possible to respond flexibly and reliably to frequent startups and partial load operations in large-capacity seawater desalination facilities,” Lee said. With Danfoss focusing on the seawater desalination sector in Asia-Pacific, the regional sales manager pointed out that investment is necessary to ensure a stable water supply in large-scale facilities. This is especially critical when there are increasing droughts due to climate change and geopolitical crisis. “In reality, there are many cases where [the facilities] are not operated on a regular basis or — even if operated — are operated at a much lower
level than the designed capacity,” he said. “Therefore, large-scale desalination facilities must be able to flexibly and reliably respond to frequent startups, stops and operation at partial load.” Furthermore, the Asian region has a high demand for small-capacity decentralised seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) facilities, compared to the Middle East and southern Europe. According to Lee, power costs account for a large portion of the facility lifecycle cost (LCC) as unit price of electricity is high — such as diesel generators — even if the power supply may not be from a stable grid network. Hence, selecting highly efficient equipment even in small and medium-sized facilities is needed, and the most important items are the high pressure pumps and energy recovery devices.
26 Water & Wastewater Asia | September-October 2024
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online