Filtration Facts

World Cup Soccer And Filtration Both Benefit From Teamwork

Soccer stars Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, and Diego Maradona each gave brilliant individual performances in helping their World Cup soccer teams to win previous FIFA Cup championships. But they have been the exception rather than the rule. Soccer is a team sport, and the champion team is usually the one which plays most effectively as a unit. The same goes for NBA greats Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and  many others. While individuals might shine in a role, it is the ability to work together that makes a championship team "greater than the sum of its parts".

The same is often true when looking at industrial and process cooling systems. One component may appear to be the key, but it is the way in which other components maximize the effectiveness of each other that leads to a high performing system. A chiller, heat exchanger, or cooling tower may be the "pivotal player," but a properly-sized filtration system will keep all three operating longer, at higher efficiency and effectiveness, and with less maintenance. A championship combination. 

Multiple Separators On The Same Team
There are situations when multiple filtration systems installed in series are greater than the sum of their parts. And situations when the volume and concentration of solids in a liquid are so great that two Separators -- acting as a team -- are needed instead of one. In this type of installation (sometimes called a "Super Separator"), a high concentration of solids is best handled by having the first Separator remove the first cut of solids (typically the larger solids, which displace the smaller particles in the separation barrel), followed by the second Separator, which will then remove the typically smaller solids that carry-over into the second unit. This is all accomplished in a SINGLE pass.

Benefits of this ONE-TWO punch of filtration includes:

• Greater solids-removal capability for higher solids concentrations
• Improved fine particle removal (after the first-stage Separator reduces the overall solids load)
• Increased overall solids-removal of both large & unusual solids and finer solids
• As a result, a two-or-three staged "Super Separator" system is often the most effective solution when there is (a) a large amount of solids to be removed and (b) there is great variation in size and weight between the solids. 

Typical situations for this type of filtration configuration might include steel mills, mining applications, and other industrial processes.

Case Study: Separators Installed In Series
A typical example illustrating this situation might be a steel forging mill in Chile, using two Centrifugal Separators in series to remove huge amounts of sand from the process water used in their cooling towers. Want to read more? Download this Case Study and get the details!

Got Hydropower Stimulus Money? Don’t Forget the Filtration

When it comes to hydropower, what was once old is new again thanks to the Department of Energy and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  As much as $30 million have been allocated for hydropower upgrades throughout the U.S. resulting in a rebirth of one of the earth’s oldest energy resources--water.

Here are some examples of some stimulus funded hydropower projects:

• Packwood Lake Hydroelectric Facility in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest will receive up to $800,000 in federal stimulus money for various upgrades.
• Tacoma Power in Tacoma, Washington will receive $4.7 million in stimulus fund money toward a new power generation facility at its Cushman Hydroelectric Project.
• San Francisco Public Utilities Commission received $2.5 million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBS) to construct a 200 kw renewable hydroelectric project at the University Mound Reservoir, making use of renewable energy from excess water pressure in the City’s water distribution system.
  

Hydro industry experts are excited about this sudden rebirth and with good reason.  Hydropower makes up approximately 75 percent of renewable energy capacity in the U.S.  However, according to Renewable Energy World, a lack of strong growth has led many to the misconception that the industry cannot expand.  Experts disagree, citing that only three percent of dams in the U.S. currently generate electricity, theoretically leaving over 77,000 dams untapped for generating capacity.

Hydropower:  What’s not to love?
Hydropower generation is surprisingly simple to understand. A dam stores river water in a reservoir. Water released from the reservoir flows through a turbine, causing it to spin. As the turbine blades spin, so do a series of magnets inside an adjacent generator. These magnets rotate past copper coils, producing an alternating current (AC) and causing electricity to flow.  Thus, water energy is converted to mechanical energy, which is then converted to electrical energy.  The electricity produced can be enough to power a small plant or an entire community.  

Hydroelectricity is an all around winner in today’s environmentally conscious climate.  Its' generation is completely independent of fossil fuels, it doesn’t release toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, and it doesn’t create any harmful byproducts.  The operational cost of a hydroelectric power plant is quite low.  And the water stored in the reservoir can serve other useful purposes, including irrigation, civic water supply, and even recreation.  

The Filtration Factor
Of course, dealing with fresh, unfiltered water often requires some degree of sediment control.  Water filtration strategies may be needed at the river intake point, the intake gates of the hydro-electric power station, and in areas where partial flow is diverted for other purposes such as irrigation or process applications.  In any of these cases, measures must be taken to protect pumps, piping components, and heat exchangers from corrosive particulates.

A perfect example is the use of a LAKOS Separator to remove sand and silt at the Crestar Energy water plant in Niton Junction in Alberta.  Here, water drawn from the McLeod River is sent through the LAKOS Separator prior to entering the water injection plant. This protects the downstream barrier filters from clogging too quickly.

Without proper filtration, the life of costly turbines used in municipal water applications can also be cut short.  In the case of the Queen Creek Water Company in Queen Creek Arizona, a LAKOS pump protection separator extends the life of the pumps and keeps them running efficiently over a longer period of time, saving thousands of dollars of taxpayer money.

Download Our Power Plant Case Study

Harnessing the energy and ecological benefits of natural water resources is certainly something we all want to do – but not at the expense of equipment that stimulus money has helped to purchase.  Download our Power Plant Case Study and learn how this can be done energy efficiently and using sustainable techniques. Filtration is key!

Filtration Makes Traditional Energy Sources Like Coal More Efficient

The search for alternative sources of energy continues in earnest around the world, so that dependence on petroleum and other fossil fuels can be reduced. In the meantime, however, the abundance of coal and the ongoing development of “clean coal” technologies and other innovative processing techniques make coal a viable energy source for many years to come. Ensuring those processes are operating as efficiently and environmentally friendly as possible is a goal we can all embrace.

There are four main types of coal (anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous, and lignite) and it is mined around the world in slightly different ways. China is the world’s top coal producing country, followed by the U.S. and Australia. The world’s first "clean coal" power plant went online in Germany in 2008.

 But no matter which type or the location, there are 3 basic steps in the coal mining process: 

1. Mining, crushing, and separation/filtration
   
2. Transportation and storage
   
3. Processing and converting
   

It doesn't matter if the removal is accomplished through surface mining or deep mining, but the separation and filtration can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Innovative techniques like those being developed in Australia and Japan as well as other coal producing countries often involve more efficient handling and disposition of coal slurry. Avoiding events like the Kingston Fossil Plant disaster of 2008 and making the most efficient use of energy and water is the ultimate goal. Slurry is often transported outside a facility through pumps that must remain free of clogging to operate at maximum efficiency. Effective industrial water filtration to provide pump protection in these cases is critical.

The coal processing plant in one Northern Appalachian (USA) coal field uses high pressure piston pumps to pump gland water into centrifugal slurry pumps and out of the system. The local lake water is used as the source, but the water has to be cleaned of dirt and other solids before entering the piston pumps or premature pump failure would result. Industrial water filters are designed with this type of application in mind. Different solutions hab been tried, but none worked very well until a LAKOS Centrifugal Separator was installed. The results was an annual savings of $32,000 in preventative pump repairs. The LAKOS Separator paid for itself in 4 months!

Want to learn more?

Download the Coal Plant Case Study and read the details.

Centrifugal Separators A Sweet Solution In Sugar Production

Sugar cane and sugar beets are the world’s two primary sources of sugar. Sugar cane is grown in over 100 countries around the world, with the top producers being Brazil and India. Sugar beets are primarily grown in the European Union, United States, and Russia. Both go through a multi-step production process of cutting, cleaning, screening and separating which is becoming increasingly more sophisticated in some countries. The Sugar Association has an informative Consumer Fact Sheet on the basic processes. Some of the same production processes are used in the production of ethanol and other biofuels as well. And the importance of effective filtration cannot be overstated, especially as these mills and refineries continue to search for ways to become more friendly to the environment and more sustainable.

And increasingly, centrifugal separators like LAKOS Separators are the perfect solution to handle some of these tasks. The main reasons include:

• Little or no water loss
• No moving parts to wear out or replace, keeping them virtually maintenance-free
• Low and steady system pressure drop

At the the Pujiltic Sugar Mill in Chiapas, Mexico, plant engineers worked with LAKOS to design a solid handling system that limits the eventual liquid loss to .08% in the pre-filtration process. Similar results have been experienced by many other sugar mills. With proper filtration, the main by-product of the milling process -- a fibrous material known as bagasse -- may be used for livestock feed, burned to provide heat, and is sometimes used in sugar mills to provide energy in such large amounts it can be sold to others. Bagasse may also serve as raw material for paper, cardboard, and other biodegradeable products.

By using centrifugal separators instead of some other forms of filtration, the sustainability and environmentally-friendliness of sugar mills is increased to its fullest potential. And isn’t that a goal we all want them to achieve? 

Read more about recent LAKOS Filtration installations in sugar mills around the world in a NEW Application Bulletin. Download it today and see the many ways effective filtration can lead to "greener" sugar production.