Bedford Pumps Ltd, the renowned manufacturer of robust high-capacity pumping plant has provided two of their fish-friendly pumps to a chemical plant in Runcorn to aid in the chemical process. INOVYN ChlorVinyls Ltd, part of INEOS, is Europe’s producer of vinyls and manufactures in eight countries across Europe. Their Runcorn site which focuses on the production of chlorine, caustic soda and chlorinated derivatives, produces chemicals for a wide variety of industrial applications across many sectors.
The 700mm axial flow fish-friendly pump sets supplied by Bedford Pumps will be used at the Runcorn plant to extract river water for the dilution of off-cast brine in the chemical process. Replacing an old power station cooling water pump, the new canister mounted pumps will take water from the Manchester ship canal and pump it into the Weaver navigation on a variable speed philosophy to meet a dilution ratio such that the brine, the production rate of which is perpetually changing, is always diluted to a set level. Each of the pumps is capable of generating a flow of 695 litres per second at a 1m head but close control of the flow rates is an essential part of the process.
Bedford Pumps scope of supply included the two axial flow submersible pumps, a multi-section canister with a cruciform inlet, fish-friendly siphon breaker valves, a pump condition monitor, as well as removal of the previous pump, installation, and commissioning. The restricted height on-site bought its own challenges to the installation process but Bedford Pumps overcame this by installing and removing the pumps in the top section of the canister.
