$3.5 Bil. In Pump Purchases By the Power Industry this Year
Purchases of pumps by the world”s power generation industry will reach $3.5 billion this year, with East Asian purchases alone exceeding $1.2 billion, according to a report by the McIlvaine Company.
Pumps will be purchased for coal, nuclear, hydro, geothermal, concentrated solar, and combined-cycle gas turbine plants. Coal-fired generators are expected to purchase more than operators of the other technologies combined. In the U.S., McIlvaine says there will be a substantial market created by new combined-cycle gas turbine plants.
The power industry around the world extracts more than 10 times more water than municipalities. Therefore, the pump requirements to move water from the source to cooling towers are substantial. McIlvaine says expensive and high-performance pumps are needed at various points in the steam cycle, while pumps for flue gas desulfurization have requirements in excess of 50,000 GPM per pump. Centrifugal pumps will constitute the majority of purchases in these applications. Rotary and diaphragm pumps are expected to draw demand from chemical additions applications, which are needed for intake water, boiler feedwater, and wastewater treatment.
