Upgrading your blowers: low-cost wastewater treatment
Reading time: 2.5 minutes
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But, if you are in the business of treating wastewater, that doesn’t always make sense. 80% of the energy needed to run a wastewater treatment plant, is consumed by its aeration blowers. The key to lowering your operating costs might be changing a few or more air blowers from your blower installation. Is it time to replace your equipment? Let’s check!
New technologies and innovations
While the typical lifetime of a blower is between 15-20 years, the technology in this field has made great strides. Do you have an older technology like lobe, multistage or old geared centrifugal installed? Then it might be time to replace your installation.
By doing so, you can reduce your energy consumption by 30% or more. Just based on these expenses, a new blower could pay for itself after 2-5 years, depending on the specifics of the wastewater operation.
Are you looking to upgrade to a more advanced control and monitoring system? Many outdated blowers have very basic controls, which limits your ability to optimize their performance. If you want to monitor and control these units correctly, you might want to consider upgrading to new units that allow you to connect your SCADA system with these units.
Plant expansion & capacity increases
An increase or plant expansion might mean your existing installation is running over time. Constantly running the equipment at the highest operating point, requires a lot of energy. Recalculating the flow capacity will help you define which size of blower you’ll need and will help you optimize your energy consumption.
A closer look at the maintenance costs
The older a blower gets, the more maintenance and replacement parts it needs. Initially, that just means service related to changing the oil and the filters and/or belt maintenance. Does one or more of your blowers need core block replacements, major shaft overhauls, new seals, vanes, or valves? These are considered higher maintenance costs, that, in combination with high energy consumption, might be a sign that it’s time to replace your blower.
The potential hidden costs
Still doubting whether or not it’s time to replace your blower? While lowering your energy consumption and maintenance expenses are the direct costs that a new blower would reduce, there are also less apparent benefits that can pay large dividends over time.
The most important is risk avoidance. Wastewater treatment plants are delicate operations. Any major problem with your compressed air installation can have devastating consequences. A breakdown of one or more blowers might mean that it may have to be replaced on short notice with a rental blower. Renting equipment is a great short-term solution but becomes expensive in the long run. If you’re dealing with an unrepairable unit, you’re already quite certain your rental equipment will be in it for the long haul.
On top of that, failing compressed air equipment can lead to the wastewater facility no longer meeting the required standards. This, in turn, can result in government penalties and potentially even the shutdown of an entire operation.
If the stakes are simply too high, it might be a good idea to avoid these risks altogether and replace any equipment before the costs start piling up.
Pro Tip: Gradual blower replacements
Obviously, any capital investment is a big decision. When it comes to replacing the blowers of a wastewater treatment plant, however, it is one that you can make gradually. For example, you can first replace only the duty machines and use the older units as backups. This will allow you to primarily run the most efficient blowers. At the same time, this gives you a sense of how much you can save by making the switch.
Checklist: to replace or not to replace
High energy consumption
Limited monitoring & control options
High maintenance costs
High risks