Amarinth gets TSB grant for energy-efficient molten sulphur pump 11 July 2013

Specialist centrifugal pumps builder Amarinth has been awarded a £250,000 grant by the Technology Strategy Board to develop a design and rapid production process for highly energy-efficient pumps.

The goal is to launch an energy-efficient molten sulphur pump specifically for the petrochemical industry.

Amarinth has been working for some time to develop a cost effective process for designing and manufacturing custom BEP (best efficiency point) impellers that can be produced on short lead times.

Amarinth managing director Oliver Brigginshaw makes the point that the centrifugal pumps used throughout industry are often a 'best fit' selection taken from a standard range – meaning that most pumps do not run at their BEP and energy inefficiencies of up to 25% can often be found.

In an ideal world the impeller and casing of a pump would be designed and manufactured to each pump duty, he says, because that kind of improvement represents a huge energy and CO2 saving over a pump's lifetime.

Indeed, work by Amarinth to date suggests that optimised impellers would reduce annual CO2 emissions in the company's target market by 17,000 tonnes by 2020 and 110,000 tonnes by 2050.

Brigginshaw says Amarinth will use the TSB grant to further its development of both the pump design and production processes to deliver the most advanced and efficient bespoke centrifugal pumps on shorter lead times at a commercially acceptable cost.

That done, he indicates that the first application will be a pump for notoriously aggressive sulphur production processes that not only offers good energy efficiency characteristics, but also high maintainability and reliability – due for release in 2014.

"We have been working on this project for some time, initially with assistance from the Carbon Trust until the government curtailed that funding," explains Brigginshaw.

"We are delighted that the Technology Strategy Board has now seen the enormous benefits that can be attained from our work, and we are looking forward to its first commercial application with the launch of our molten sulphur pump in 2014."

Brian Tinham

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Amarinth Ltd

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