Sulzer – Energy-efficient solutions

Clean water and sanitation

Billions of people lack access to fresh water, sanitation and handwashing facilities. Managing and using water more efficiently is necessary to address the challenge, even more so with urbanization trends and climate change increasing the need for clever water management.

Our solutions bring freshwater to cities and remote locations, enabling communities to grow and thrive. We also develop and supply systems to treat waste water in the most efficient manner, thus making sanitation available for populations.

Sulzer’s pumps play a key role in water systems around the globe, providing people access to fresh water. Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has one of the world’s largest water transmission systems. By building a new major pipeline, the city is preparing for the growing water needs of this thriving metropolis. Sulzer’s pumps are vital to transport the water over hundreds of kilometers to its destination.

We not only help to get people access to fresh water, we also play a major role in returning clean water to its source – by providing effective solutions for wastewater collection and treatment. Based on our pumping, mixing and aeration expertise, we continuously innovate and launch products with the highest attainable efficiency level in the market.

Energy efficiency

Cities are the largest consumer of energy. With urbanization comes a growing need for energy and more efficient management of it.

Sulzer’s pumps systems and solutions are vital elements of our customers’ operations. The majority of life cycle energy consumption and emissions originates at customers’ sites.

We develop solutions and equipment that deliver market-leading efficiency levels, enabling our customers to add more value, more sustainably. Our pumps maximize our costumer’s output by minimizing energy consumption and emissions.

Energy costs represent the biggest part of the total cost of ownership of a process pump. Using the right pump technology is the best way to reduce energy consumption and the overall lifetime cost of the equipment. Sulzer provides pumps with market-leading efficiency levels, exceeding the strictest energy regulations for all industries.

Leveraging IoT and advanced analytics, Sulzer’s BLUE BOX™ software solution helps understand the operational performance of pumps, providing efficiency or output gains. Atlantica, a global player managing a strong portfolio in sustainable infrastructure, is using Sulzer’s artificial intelligence solution at two of their solar power plants, helping avoid 665’000 tons of CO2 emissions annually. BLUE BOX immediately highlights under-performing and potentially unreliable assets while identifying opportunities to reduce operational risk and energy consumption.

Waste reduction

Worldwide material consumption is on the rise; people use more material per capita than in the past. Measures are needed to stop excess consumption of resources and to reduce waste.

Our packaging solutions reduce or recycle plastic waste and increase resource efficiency. By means of additive manufacturing, we develop solutions for parts and repairs that minimize waste.

In our own operations, we make use of additive manufacturing (AM) to considerably reduce waste. During the production of spare parts, AM processes use only material that is actually required. In contrast, conventional processes usually start with a large block of oversized raw material that is machined away to produce the desired form. With AM, we are also able to avoid stocking parts because it gives us the flexibility to manufacture parts whenever needed. Last but not least, AM also allows for new design freedom, which can result in smaller parts and thus savings in material and space.

Alternative to products with a high carbon footprint

In light of climate change and increasing emissions, action is required to find alternatives to products with a high carbon footprint.

We offer a wide range of solutions for bio-based applications, from thermal and physical separation to mixing polymerization and pumping – building blocks to improve sustainability by lowering the carbon footprint of products.

What makes dealing with the global plastics problem so difficult is that conventional plastics are usually not degradable. The good news is that there is a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics: Biodegradable plastics made of polylactic acid (PLA) are bio-based and 100% recyclable to their original form. Sulzer is a leading technology provider for the production of PLA.

Made from organic materials or waste, biofuels can be used as a sustainable transportation fuel and thus help reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Sulzer is the market leader for pumps and separation technology for biofuels.

Around the world, the power industry is taking on the challenge to produce clean energy from renewable resources. Concentrated solar power generation (CSP) provides a sustainable solution to energy needs, today and in the future. Sulzer has been working with customers to provide reliable and cost-effective solar power since supplying pumps to a CSP plant in 1984.