電気・電子システムジャーナル

The success of any plant is generally fostered by many factors that affect directly the production. The relevant ones are, low capital investment, low operating cost, and high production efficiency. Energy consumption is a key element that influences the operating cost factor. Indeed, the electrical power consumed by electrical motors in an LPG plant constitutes one of the major sources of energy consumption. Motorized systems’ optimization can generate important energy saving, improving and energy efficiency for the following systems: compressed air system, ventilation system and pumping system. Variable frequency drive offers many advantages in centrifugal pumps’ operation. It can improve process control, equipment reliability and cost savings. In this paper, a study of energy saving opportunity in pumping systems using low affinity equations is presented. For this purpose, three factors have been measured: the flow rate, pressure and the electrical power drawn by the electric motor. Energy efficiency of the existing system consisting of the pump driven by the electrical motor has been calculated using on site measured data.