Water & Wastewater Asia May/June 2019

IN PERSON | 23
Danfoss Pumps a show of
strength at Water Philippines
The APP W
HC pump
DESALINATION was a hot topic at the
recent Water Philippines expo, with Metro
Manila hit by its worst water crisis in recent
history – over 13 million people live in Metro
Manila, and have been affected by the severe
water shortage. During the crisis, Philippine
president Rodrigo Duterte had expressed
interest in Singapore’s experience with
desalination, hoping the solution to the
country’s water woes.
DANFOSS’ ANSWER TO
DESALINATION CONCERNS –
HIGH-PRESSURE APP PUMPS
Danfoss took the opportunity to showcase
a plethora of solutions aimed at the
desalination industry, including highpressure
pumps, energy-recovery devices
and AC drives. Tailored to Sea Water Reverse
Osmosis (SWRO) applications, the APP
pumps can be used in almost any SWRO
application - land-based, offshore or marine.
According to Vijay, the energy efficiency of
Danfoss’ high-pressure pumps puts them
head and shoulders above the rest of the
competition. “This pump is specifically for
desalination – this pump offers the most in
energy efficiency compared to any other. It’s
a piston pump, so compared to any other
centrifugal pump like what you see in the
market – the efficiency of a piston pump is
about 90 per cent, and centrifugal pumps
about 60-65 per cent.”
“When you do the cost-price analysis, you’ll
find that the payback period is normally
about eight months in the Philippines.”
“In a country like the Philippines where the
energy cost is very high, using our pump
could save them hundreds of thousands a
year, depending on the size of the system,
but we’re looking at saving one kilowatthour
per cubic metre of water produced.
In layman terms this means they’re saving
about 200 US dollars per day, that kind of
thing, for a small system. For bigger systems
they have 2000 cubic metres, 5000 cubic
metres… can you imagine the amount of
savings they could get in a day?”
Between the water crisis and Water
Philippines, why look to desalination as
a solution? According to Vijay, a likely
explanation could lie in the decreasing cost
of materials. “The membrane is the heart
of the desalination RO system. And now
the price is coming down, it can be done at
a much lower cost compared to 10 or 15
years ago, so that’s a trend now we see, a lot
of small desalination plants are happening
everywhere.”
He added: “Seawater is a more reliable
source now, and now you can get droughts
out of nowhere. That’s a worrying trend,
and you can’t control mother nature, but
seawater’s always going to be there, that’s
something that you can control and work
around.”
INTRODUCING THE APP W HC
PUMP
Although not showcased at the exhibition,
Vijay took the chance to talk about the
new Danfoss high-pressure pump for Zero
Liquid Discharge (ZLD) and Minimal Liquid
Discharge (MLD) industrial wastewater
treatment.
“The APP W HC is our latest model that we
introduced to the market while working with
our partners in China.
We created this pump specifically for
wastewater recycling when they need to
operate at a very high pressure. So that
can go up to 120 bars, it’s about the same
capacity, same build, they look just about
the same as the others, but it’s much higher
pressure.”
Danfoss ASEAN Region Sales Manager Vijay (second from left) standing with the rest of the
Danfoss team at Water Philippines 2019.
With over 50 installations in China, the
APP W HC pump has debuted to positive
response in China – but Vijay doubts that
other regions will be so quick to embrace this
new technology. “I think the ASEAN region
is mostly still not very sensitive towards the
need for wastewater recycling, and they’re
still discharging wastewater out to the rivers
and so on, there’s a lot of pollution, and the
enforcement towards waste is not there. It
won’t be until we see the trend of heavier
enforcement towards waste discharge, and
more recycling on the wastewater, then the
pump will fit in nicely for the wastewater
systems.” WWA
Water & Wastewater Asia • May / June 2019