5 December 2007 -

What the future holds for magnetic

drive pumps
The push for cleaner air was the catalyst to a magnetic
drive revolution in the United States pumping industry,
but cleaner air is not all these pumps have to offer. Keith
Thompson of Sundyne Corporation explains how the
magnetic drive pump gained a strong foothold in the
process industries and what's next on the cards for this
environmentally sensitive machine.
Magnetic drive pumps have come a long way since their
introduction in the 1940s. Although early designs were somewhat
special and limited in capability, industrial users found magnetic
drive technology to be very attractive for solving problems
associated with leaky seals in services such as lethal chemical
and hot oil transfer. After years of evolutionary development,
current magnetic drive pump designs conform to industry
standards and have vastly increased application capability. More
significantly, in many process plants, the technology continues to
drive the paradigm shift away from conventionally sealed pumps
to sealless pumps.
Compelling need
Magnetic drive technology has been available for many years,
but the mainstream popularity of magnetic drive pumps did not
come about until the 1990s. It was at this time that one key
event, the passage of the US Clean Air Act, thrust magnetic drive
technology into the limelight. The US Clean Air Act was enacted
to control pollution into the environment. Among other pollution
sources identified in the act, conventionally sealed pumps were
listed as a major contributor to air pollution. With conventionally
sealed pumps, small amounts of chemicals, known as fugitive
emissions, leak into the surrounding environment. Many
countries had enacted laws to control emissions in the 1980s, but
it was not until 1990 that the US followed suit. Subsequent
amendments to the Clean Air Act promised steep fines,
expensive monitoring, and complex reporting procedures for
sealed pumps.
For the US chemical processor, the need to find an alternative to
sealed pumps became compelling. Pump manufacturers around
the world responded to this need with sealless technology, both
magnetic drive and canned motor, because sealless pumps were
exempt from the cumbersome requirements of sealed pumps.
The growing demand for magnetic drive pumps during this period
was also accompanied by many technological improvements in
both bearing materials and magnet strength. These
improvements enabled pump manufacturers to expand their
offerings into larger pump sizes with greater horsepower
capability. However, the most significant effect of the
technological advances was that manufacturers were able to
offer magnetic drive pumps in compact sizes that were
dimensionally interchangeable with the conventional ANSI sealed
pumps that were the workhorse of the chemical process industry.
The flange-to-flange interchangeability with ANSI pumps enabled
even more users to take advantage of sealless technology
without expensive piping changes. Subsequently, the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) recognized the more
widespread demand and application of magnetic drive technology
when it published the B73.3 Standard for magnetic drive pumps
in 1997.
A new realization
Many magnetic drive pumps were purchased and installed in
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anticipation of ever tightening emissions requirements. Over
time, it became apparent that enforcement of the new law was
being handled inconsistently. Individual state laws had different
interpretations of the pollution control requirements, and
enforcement varied greatly and was generally less pervasive than
originally anticipated.
But during this period driven by legislative compliance,
companies began to realize that in addition to the avoidance of
fugitive emissions, and the associated fines and monitoring
costs, magnetic drive pumps provided greater reliability and a
smaller overall life cycle cost than many of the pumps they just
replaced. With magnetic drive pumps, companies could not only
be safer and more environmentally responsible, they could save
money too.
While, magnetic drive pumps are now accepted by many of the
world's largest companies, but there are still many who have yet
to explore their benefits. Much of this hesitation may be due to
old misconceptions regarding pricing, a steep learning curve for
operating the pump correctly, or horsepower and hydraulic range
limitations. The reality of the situation, however, is that modern
magnetic drive pumps can economically meet nearly every
process pumping condition's needs without requiring any special
operating procedures. Demanding process conditions, such as
temperatures of 850 F, system pressures exceeding 3,000 psi,
and power requirements in excess of 500 hp, can all be handled
with magnetic drive pumps.
Recognizing a need for a sealless pump specification for heavy-
duty services in refineries and related industries, the American
Petroleum Institute (API) introduced the API 685 standard in
2000. API 685 was based upon the widely specified and popular
API 610 standard, which provides guidelines for the design and
construction of conventionally sealed pumps for heavy-duty
services. API 685 not only provided further credibility to the
advancement and application of sealless pump technology, it also
brought sealless technology further into the mainstream of pump
specification and selection. Today, because of API 685, magnetic
drive pumps are successfully being used in refineries for heat
transfer fluids, acids, caustics, aromatics and sour water.
Outside of the chemical and hydrocarbon processing industries,
where service temperature or pressure is not so severe,
magnetic drive pumps have found growing acceptance as new,
non-metallic materials have further lowered the total cost of
ownership. Magnetic drive pumps lined with fluoropolymers such
as ETFE or PFA have proven to be a cost effective alternative to
higher alloy metallic designs in highly corrosive applications.
Non-metallic containment shells, the fluid-containing barrier
within the magnetic coupling, do not have the energy consuming
"eddy-current loss" characteristics of their metallic counterparts,
enabling a more energy efficient pump design. As energy costs
continue to rise, pump efficiency has become an ever more
critical decision criterion in the selection of pumps. Non-metallic
containment shell designs have enabled magnetic drive pumps to
compete with conventionally sealed pumps on an equivalent
efficiency basis. Consequently, users have adopted non-metallic
magnetic drive pumps as standard technology for services such
as sulphuric and hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, and
sodium hypochlorite.
Reliable operation
The application of magnetic drive pumps has dramatically
expanded as pump users have also been attracted to the pump's
simplicity and overall reliability. Simplified designs and years of
maintenance free operation have led to the realization that
magnetic drive pumps can be the most reliable pumping solution.
A major consideration in overall reliability is the ability of the
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pump to withstand process interruptions or upsets that might
lead to dry run operation. In dry run operation, the pump does
not receive the fluid necessary to provide adequate bearing
lubrication and heat removal. Over the years, magnetic drive
pump reliability has increased as manufacturers have
experimented with new materials that possess some dry running
capabilities, and end users have adopted pump monitoring as a
key strategy to improve total system reliability. Monitoring
magnetic drive pumps is typically simpler than monitoring most
conventional pumps with complex seal plans. One simple,
inexpensive, and easy to operate power monitor is all that is
usually needed to protect against the vast majority of pumping
conditions that might lead to pump failure.
Beyond acceptance
Whereas seal failure, leakage, and legislative action were once,
and still are, primary drivers for the adoption of magnetic drive
pump technology, the overall reliability and cost of ownership
have become equally powerful drivers for its acceptance. There is
little doubt that with all the growing attention over global
warming and other environmental concerns, the emission-free
aspect of magnetic drive pumps is likely to continue to gain
momentum and become a larger factor when specifying pumps.
Nevertheless, it is even more likely that the ever-widening
acceptance of magnetic drive pumps - in areas far outside the
pollution control arena - will be a significant driver of this
technology in the future. More recently, standard industrial and
municipal industries that treat water and wastewater are utilizing
magnetic drive pumps for chemical transfer and scrubbing.
Agricultural companies involved with ethanol and biodiesel and
other processing have adopted these pumps to control their
operating and maintenance costs.
Customer feedback data suggests that most companies that try
magnetic drive pumps continue to use them and even expand
their application within their plants. Manufacturers have
responded to this need by expanding hydraulic coverage and
adding positive displacement, self-priming and vertical pump
designs to their magnetic drive pump catalogues. As pump
manufacturers continue to develop and expand their magnetic
drive pump capabilities in response to customer driven needs,
the technology will continue to attract new fluid transfer uses as
it moves beyond acceptance and fuels the paradigm shift towards
sealless pumps as the preferred technology for the future.
Contact
Keith Thompson
Sundyne Corporation
www.sundyne.com
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