Ibstock Pump: The Benefits Of Clean Dewatering!

Overview

Ibstock are the UK’s largest manufacturer of clay bricks with 23 active quarries and numerous more factory sites across the country. Birtley Quarry’s Engineering Manager wanted to improve efficiency in the dewatering operations whilst maintaining high standards of environmental protection. Learning about EnviroHub, he quickly saw the potential to prevent the risk of dirty water from exiting the site, and maintain the level of the quarry-water retention pond through automation.

Challenge

What Equipment Is Needed For Quarry Site Dewatering?

A diesel-powered dewatering pump had been installed previously, which was now costing the quarry in fuel use, hire costs and labour time. As a basic pump system, the engine had to be manually started and stopped, when management manually assessed that the water clarity warranted it. This was becoming a distraction from other priorities, and dewatering opportunities were often missed due to the demands on their time, or when the site wasn’t staffed.

Solution

Industrial pump manufacturers Atlantic Pumps were consulted on the best pump for dewatering this quarry, and a proposal was put forward to provide a wastewater management system that provided the right balance of automation and manual controls.

The recommended dewatering process consisted of a 3.3kWh electric submersible Audex pump, suspended on a floating pontoon and connected to an EnviroHub CM01 control module with an inverter for pump speed control.

The EnviroHub control module was programmed to stop the dewatering operation automatically as soon as water turbidity or pH values hit predetermined levels. Along with recording these readings plus volumes of wastewater removed, a full audit trail is kept for management data and compliance records.

The electric pump specification for the site’s dewatering process has saved Ibstock significant fuel savings as well as reduced their dewatering operation’s carbon emissions to zero.

Whilst the EnviroHub ‘brains’ module is linkable to many more controls, the fact that this basic configuration continuously monitors the water quality, automatically stops the pump if values go out of spec, and records both volumetric and quality data are huge wins for Birtley quarry’s management.

The EnviroHub water management system is modular and now includes the option of a full filtering and pH level correcting suite, in addition to providing real-time remote monitoring, reporting and recording of data.

This makes it ideal for many water recycling or discharging situations including factories, construction sites, concrete plants, and natural watercourse improvement works. As it automates much of the environmental, operational and financial factors of dewatering, water recycling or washout that face today’s site managers, it is a significant time saver.

EnviroHub is available for outright purchase or hire.

Read more about the benefits of running electric dirty water submersible pumps.