The Impact Pump has numerous applications, displacing submersibles and enabling groundwater lifting where it is not currently possible
Initially developed for irrigation, the Impact Pump is a more robust and reliable alternative to all classes of submersible pumps, whether electric down-the-well helical rotor or centrifugal pumps, rod-linked piston pumps or shaft driven centrifugals. Enabling most serviceable parts and all electrical, complex mechanical and sliding seal components to be located at surface level, it offers unprecedented lifetime, reliability and ease of maintenance. A versatile solution, the surface pump used to drive the Impact Pump can be changed in less than 2 minutes, enabling human or petrol powered water lifting to take over from solar or grid during extended cloud cover, or when grid-power is unavailable.
The Impact Pump brings longevity, reliability and ease of maintenance to a wide range of groundwater lifting scenarios for water supply including community water systems (standpipe/hub and spoke), domestic (household) systems and piped reticulation systems.
Whatever your power source, the Impact Pump can extend the range of an existing surface pump. This is most relevant in applications where a surface pump is already used for water distribution, and water lifting is required from a new water source beyond suction depth. If you already have a surface pump, this can still be used for rapid distribution at surface level with low power, enabling raised water to be stored at ground level rather than in costly water towers.
Developed around a solar-powered platform, the Impact Pump is particularly well suited to solar as a primary energy source. As solar power varies throughout the day and the seasons, maximising pumped yield implies being able to pump with high efficiency at all times of day and year. The Impact Pump can start pumping with very low input power, even if it is lifting water against substantial static heads (pressures). Its pumped output increases smoothly as more sunlight becomes available, without compromising efficiency at either the ends or the middle of the day.
Solar submersibles are almost always installed with costly raised tanks, as water usage patterns (irrigation and domestic water demand) tend to be high for short periods in the early day or the evening and limited during the daytime. Just by turning a valve, the Impact Pump’s drive pump becomes a surface distribution pump. This enables water to be distributed at high flow-rate from cheaper ground-level stores, even with low power availability at the ends of the day.
In quarry, building site and mine dewatering applications, it is often convenient or necessary to locate power sources at surface level. Particulates and varying temperatures, which significantly decrease the service life of existing submersibles can easily be lifted and deposited by the Impact Pump, protecting its surface drive pump from damage. Furthermore, dry running, leading to motor burnouts is not a problem, as the Impact Pump simply continues lifting air until the water level returns.
Hot and chemically aggressive media
With no submerged motors or electronics and appropriate choice of materials for plastic components, the Impact Pump can lift water at temperatures that even exceed the boiling point of brine. A number of composite and advanced plastic alternatives are available for stainless steel parts enabling it to pump high-chloride level water sources and even strongly acid or basic solutions.
Impact Pump enables a suite of future applications including hydropower generation from aquifer recharge and advanced low-cost acoustic monitoring of groundwater levels and flows.
The ability to operate without dynamic seals and bearings gives NIFTE devices a clear set of advantages over mechanical heat engines.
Apart from unprecedented reliability and low maintenance, NIFTEs can be manufactured from very low cost materials using cheap and well established production techniques. This makes them economically feasible in application areas where pumps are not currently viable.
They are capable of pumping many different fluids, from shear sensitive biological cultures to viscous and chemically, or mechanically abrasive media. They have a gentle pumping action and operate in almost total silence. NIFTEs can be tuned during operation to suit a range of different pumping head and flow requirements, and available power sources.
Another key attribute of NIFTEs is their ability to use heat as a power source. Vapour cycle NIFTEs are particularly well suited to using heat at low temperatures, such as the waste heat from process loads or heat obtained from solar thermal collectors. This makes them well suited to applications in remote areas or hostile conditions, or helping users to meet increasingly stringent emission standards.
NIFTEs can also use cool sources for power, taking their input heat from the ambient environment. They are capable of adding or taking heat from the fluid being pumped. This attribute can be adjusted to suit a wide range of applications from those in which no heat flows into or out of the pumped medium, to those in which almost all of the heat flow passing through the system is added to, or removed from the pumped medium.
NIFTEs are self-starting, and require only small temperature differences to excite and sustain oscillations. Furthermore, they do not require active control systems, electronics or other costly or fault prone components to operate.
There are a number of applications in which one, or a combination of the unique features of NIFTE devices make them highly competitive with existing technologies. In many cases NIFTE devices open up the possibility of pumping, heat pumping or compressing where it isn’t currently considered to be an option.