December 23, 2016

Sorensen Systems Provides Oil Drilling Solution to Drilling Company in Cairo, Egypt

Mike Gardella, VP Engineering & Mfg
Sorensen Systems





The Qarun Petroleum Company Relied on Sorensen Systems to Fulfill Their Requirement to Pump Crude Oil from a Drill Site to a Storage Distribution Network.

Qarun Petroleum Company was required to pump the crude oil as part of their expansion of oil production in the deserts of Egypt. As part of their plan, they needed a new onshore eight by six inch telescopic pipeline, 27 miles long, to transport the oil from their Yomna Storage location to Karama Central Processing facilities in western Egypt.

Sorensen Systems designed, developed and manufactured four crude oil pumping stations needed to boost the oil through the pipelines by using an electric motor driven series of three pumps per oil station. Two of the pumps were required to meet the boost requirement and the third serves as a back-up during routine maintenance and unexpected downtime.

Each pump was a compact design allowing for reduced horse power electric motors. Mounting multiple pumps on a single platform increased the volume of the oil that can be transferred. The skids contained motorized screw pumps, lubrication systems, large diameter piping, electronic control cabinets and complete instrumentation.

Read more about this project or read about other featured projects at www.SorensenSystems.com.


Each completed skid was 40 feet long, which was determined as a design requirement to allow the completed pump assembly to fit perfectly into a standard dry-cargo shipping container





May 13, 2016

Fresh Water Now Flowing in Kingdom of Jordan Thanks to Sorensen Systems



Written by: Mike Gardella
VP Engineering & Manufacturing - Sorensen Systems


The capital city of Amman, Jordan, faced a crisis where 40 percent of its four million inhabitants only had running water from their taps one day a week. To address this critical shortage, the United States and the country of Jordan embarked on an ambitious development plan to convert the brackish water from three large “wadis” (streambeds) near the Dead Sea into fresh drinking water. The plan utilized reverse osmosis as part of a desalinization process to recover up to 85 percent of water put through its planned water treatment plant.

Power Units

Sorensen Systems was privileged to provide six complete hydraulic power operating systems, one each for six pumping stations in series, along the pipeline to lift the treated water from the desalination plant to the National Park Pump Station site in southern Amman. Today, approximately 700,000 people, about one third of the water distributed in the Greater Amman area receive water directly from this system. The project delivers 100,000 cubic meters of water each day to the city, a distance of 25 miles.

The power units designed and built for the project provide the system with a nominal 2,000 psi self-contained, pressurized hydraulic fluid system capable of simultaneously operating the valves at the specified speeds against the specified operating head requirements. In addition, the hydraulic fluid system was designed to automatically, simultaneously and immediately close the valves upon a loss of main electrical power or emergency shut down condition.

Reverse Osmosis

The project is referred to by names of the three “wadis” in the region, Ma’in, Zara Springs, and Mujib. The brackish water available from these streambeds will be subjected to a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination process, which is being increasingly used around the world as an efficient, reliable and cost-effective technology. The RO process uses the osmosis phenomenon, i.e., osmotic pressure difference between the saltwater and the pure water to remove salts from the water. To gain the effect required, there is a need for energy to operate the pumps that raise the pressure applied to feedwater. According to Mike Gardella, a 25 mile transmission pipeline conveys the potable water to Amman through six pumping stations with a total head of about 1,300 m.

An important part of the design requirement was providing the system with dual automatically alternating pumps. The pumps were arranged so that in the event of failure of one pump to generate its rated flow and pressure, the other pump will automatically start. The two pumps don’t run simultaneously. Another design specification called for all necessary controls, transformers, and components to cause the valves to perform the specified functions and operations, requiring only a single 400 volt, 3-Phase, 50 Hz electrical connection.

In addition to the needed potable water, the project had other benefits for the people of Amman. The project will reduce the over pumping of groundwater aquifers, to allow them to recover their full storage capacity as a reserve against future shortages. Also it will release water currently being pumped to Amman from other cities, in order to promote development in the outlying cities.

March 15, 2016

Partnerships Promote Both Effectiveness and Customer Satisfaction




Written by: Mike Gardella
VP Engineering & Manufacturing - Sorensen Systems


When a representative of a leading New England based aerospace company contacted us, an exciting new opportunity emerged that challenged the engineering and manufacturing capabilities of Sorensen Systems. The company was seeking a turn-key testing solution for qualifying the integrity of avionic pumps, which are used to provide cooling to vital electronic systems in high altitude aircraft. With a spike in orders for cooling systems and a robust forecast for future demand, the company had an immediate need to upgrade its pump testing systems to meet production goals. After meeting with the customer’s project engineers to discuss the overall requirements, it was determined the testing systems require specialized software to be programmed in the data acquisition equipment to the individual control system components that create the extreme environmental conditions. Recognizing the delivery time line, the need for specialized data acquisition, and electronic controls expertise we were pleased to work collaboratively with an established controls company with whom we had worked with successfully in the past.






  1.  Creating a joint effort to reduce inefficiencies and delays: Partnering with a well-known instrument and testing controls manufacturer, Sorensen Systems helped design and build specialized testing equipment for a cooling pump installation destined for high altitude aircraft applications. In the critical aerospace engineering environment, especially with sophisticated components such as this, it is not sufficient to test sample batches of manufactured parts. Rather, every single part must receive a full test to certify its fitness for use in the aerospace application. The partnering company’s expertise of automated testing, data acquisition, and electronic control systems meshed seamlessly with our systems engineering, product component selection, fabrication/assembly and final testing capabilities. From the beginning, this was a true partnership, with “one face” to the customer. The aerospace pump manufacturer was pleased with the arrangement and with the degree of expertise that all parties brought to the table. As with most projects of this magnitude, there were a number of face to face meetings, which included the following: quote review, engineered system design, product verification, planned step by step test sequencing, purchase order placement, timeline delivery meetings, on site fabrication inspections, and final testing. With all three parties present at each event, all communications were direct so decisions could be made rapidly.

2.   Integrating two sums to equal a greater whole: The test stand included the controls company’s LabVIEW software and electronic data acquisition modules, which were integrated into a structural aluminum frame. Sorensen System engineers designed the pneumatic and fluid circuitry for the sophisticated system used to create the varying flight conditions. We selected the components, designed and fabricated the assembly, connected the fluid lines, and wire integrated the electronic components, to the data acquisition modules.

3.   Rigorous testing meets customer’s requirements: When the fabrication process was completed, final witness testing and acceptance was performed first at our facility in Northborough MA, and then again at the unit was retested on-site to the satisfaction of the pump manufacturer. The customer was delighted with the degree of thoroughness exhibited throughout the entire process from the first meeting through final on-site test acceptance.

4.   Customer satisfaction is always the goal: Most importantly, the customer’s satisfaction with design, fabrication, and the testing process was reinforced by the finished product’s successful results: the new test stand increased production by 25 percent, reinforced quality verification, and occupied 33 percent less floor space than the old method. In every way, the product created a positive impact on the customer’s bottom line. The validation for a job well done came when this customer relied on us for another challenging turn-key solution.


This project and others can be found on SorensenEngineered.com