Across the food and beverage industry, pump selection plays a critical role in ensuring reliability, productivity, and compliance. While hygienic pumps receive the most attention, a large portion of plant performance depends on the reliability of support pumps — the equipment handling bulk ingredients, utilities, chemicals, wastewater, and byproduct streams that keep the sanitary process running smoothly.
For centrifugal compressors that produce natural gas, also known as methane, seals on the machine’s rotating shafts prevent pressurized gas from escaping from the compressor’s casing. A conventional method for sealing the casing utilizes oil under high pressure to act as a barrier to stop gas from escaping. These are known as wet gas seals. Yet, for many situations, companies involved in producing and transmitting natural gas are moving towards using dry seals. Gas seals like these instead use pressurized nitrogen or another similar substance in gaseous form, which reduces both methane emissions and operational expenses.
Establishing an effective pump reliability program can slash costs, make operations safer and provide uptime benefits.
