Case
A water treatment company in Singapore builds innovative intelligent reverse osmosis solutions – with help from Grundfos
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a mature technology in the water treatment market, with many established manufacturers globally. However, there is still space for innovative ideas, and TEHO Water & Envirotec Pte Ltd – a company specialised in the design, engineering and assembly of water treatment skids in Singapore – aims to do just that. TEHO Water & Envirotec builds intelligent reverse osmosis systems to create a niche product that sets them apart from their competitors.
The Situation
They chose Grundfos for this project, and there were several reasons for this, as Oscar Tang, Business & Operations Manager, TEHO Water & Envirotec, explains:
“Grundfos is a global leader in the field of pumping solutions, with a reputation for producing high-quality, reliable products. This was important to us because we needed pumps and instruments that we could rely on to operate smoothly and consistently over an extended period of time.”
Another point in favour of Grundfos is their strong local presence in Singapore, with a team of experienced engineers who provide prompt support and technical assistance whenever needed. This is critical, because TEHO Water & Envirotec needs to ensure that they could get timely assistance if any issues were encountered with the pumps or instruments during the project.
We were also impressed by the user-friendly pump sizing interface portal and Extranet provided by Grundfos.
The Grundfos Solution
TEHO Water & Envirotec targeted specifically Grundfos E-pumps with remote control function. Specifically, CRNE vertical multistage pumps were installed as both feed and high pressure pumps for their RO unit. For accurate and precise dosing, the modular smart digital Grundfos DDA dosing pump was used.
The CRNE has suction and discharge ports on the same level, and pump materials in contact with the liquid are in high-grade stainless steel (EN 1.4401). As an ‘E-pump’, the CRNE has an MGE motor with integrated variable frequency drive, to ensure optimal flow and pressure with low energy consumption. In terms of design, customisation of the pumps was required to add further instrumentations to the standard design, so the pumps could communicate with each other to ensure smooth an operating process.
“We were also impressed by the user-friendly pump sizing interface portal and Extranet provided by Grundfos. This made it easy for us to select the right pumps for our specific needs, based on the parameters we inputted into the portal. This saved us time and effort and helped us to make informed decisions about which products to use for our project,” says Oscar Tang.
The Outcome
Overall, TEHO Water & Envirotec delivered an intelligent reverse osmosis system that takes mature reverse osmosis technology a step further with remote control and substantial energy savings using Grundfos E-pumps.
However, this is a rather new solution and EHO Water & Envirotec continues to develop the intelligent reverse osmosis system; for example, the remote control function does not work effectively on Android devices, and the remote control function only works under Bluetooth connection with a very short distance. The optimal solution would be to control remotely using a Wi-Fi connection instead from greater distance.
“Grundfos has undeniable product quality since the first day we worked with them more than a decade ago. Energy and water savings are also critical in this case as these are important considerations among users these days, and Grundfos achieves that with their IE5-rated high efficiency motor,” says Oscar Tang, and concludes:
We are excited to be working with Grundfos for our R&D project, and given that the intelligent reverse osmosis solution is still new, I personally hope that we can be the strategic partner Grundfos chooses to work with to develop this innovative solution further.
Products supplied for TEHO Water & Envirotec’s dosing skid:
CRNE 5-6 (2.2kW) vertical multistage pumps
CRNE 5-18 (5.5kW) vertical multistage pumps
DDA 7.5-16 (24W) smart digital dosing pumps