Going Green with Hydraulic System Design

Written by: Mike Gardella

VP Engineering & Manufacturing - Sorensen Systems


In today’s conservation conscious environment there is an ongoing desire to be as efficient as possible when either upgrading or installing new hydraulic equipment.  The challenge is to balance the price of “going green” with the business objective of controlling project cost.  Although there are many technologies and design techniques available to reduce energy consumption, not all of them may make sense as they relate to a company’s overriding need to control cost.  THG Corporation has made great strides in offering its air utility customers the opportunity to take advantage of both reduced power consumption and rebate opportunities offered by power companies to help satisfy both these goals.  THG has now added this service to its hydraulic power system offering.

The Challenge: How to conduct a proper hydraulic system analysis/audit of your application and assure you of a cost-effective system design.

The Myth: A system sales person can make a quick “walk-through” and offer good advice.

The Requirement: To conduct a useful hydraulic audit the skills of a trained hydraulic system engineer are required. There are many technologies and potential rebate opportunities available and it takes both skill and experience to strike the right balance between cost and system features.  In an actual case in point, THG was presented the opportunity to quote a new project requiring substantial flow and pressure requirements.  The overall system operating parameters were as follows:

• Average horse power requirement for the
  system was 500 horse power

• Peak horse power required for short
  durations was 1,000 horse power

Engineering analysis revealed several potential design paths.  Excluding the brute force approach of providing five 200 horse power motors and conducting a “root mean squared” calculation to optimize motor size, the following paths, with their associated implementation cost and power consumption, were determined:

Factoring in potential power company rebates resulted in the following:

The final numbers showed that the 100 horse power option with VFD drives resulted in the best combination of lower operation cost and return on investment.  This is especially significant given the fact that the power company rebate for the 100 horse power VFD option nearly matched the differential of providing a 200 horse power system with soft starters.  Finally, it is also important to note that although the accumulator option clearly resulted in a lower yearly cost savings, the peculiarities of the rebate program resulted in this option qualifying for no rebate. This emphasizes that, not only is a solid background in hydraulic design a perquisite for success in this market approach, an in depth understanding of power rebate program(s) is also required.

THG Offering:  At THG we have the trained personnel, the right equipment and appropriate industry experience to conduct a thorough design analysis or an on-site audit of your system. We will examine supply, demand, distribution and control and provide the roadmap from which you can plot your best course of action.

THG Corporation is the parent company of The Hope Group, Sorensen Systems, and Hope Air Systems. Read more about us at www.THGCorporation.com.

Variety is the Spice of Success

Written by: Mike Gardella

VP Engineering & Manufacturing - Sorensen Systems

In the past several years I have been involved with a wide variety of projects
such as:

1)      Driving a 10 ton piston at 4000 gallons a minute and 5000 psi for an energy storage system

2)      Controlling the position of 48 inch bore-cylinder to ± 3 µ

3)      Designing and developing rack and pinion system driven by hydraulics in an 800°F environment

4)      Designing and developing a motor yacht GPS positioning system

5)      Providing engineering services for a client to supply an oil pumping system in Venezuela

6)      Nitrogen generators

When I look at that list, I have to admit I didn’t know that’s where a lot of my effort would be spent. Ten years ago the primary business in New England hydraulics was machine tool, injection molding, paper mills, and heavy industry. Today those industries no longer exist nearly to the extent they once did.

Today, we are focusing on marine/mobile, military/homeland security, life sciences, power generation, and alternate energy. These customers require a whole new level of engineering and technical support for us – and them - to be successful.

Over the years Sorensen Systems has had to adapt to changing industries both in New England and abroad. The key to adapting to these changes is to ensure you have a strong engineering staff that’s capable of thinking outside the box and willing to take on new and varying projects. The first reaction out of an engineer upon receiving a project that’s never been done before should be one of excitement and a drive to figure it out. I’m convinced that’s the attitude we have developed here.

Many companies segregate their engineering staff into specialized fields, for example, structures, controls, fluids, etc. Sorensen System’s key attribute in selecting engineers is flexibility. Regardless of whether we’re hiring a hydraulic project engineer or a controls engineer, that person will eventually be cross-trained to perform all aspects of a project. This goes against the practice of what is typically followed by engineering companies. But by cross-training our engineering staff the project engineer obtains the ability to see the whole picture of a project and how best to integrate all aspects of a project to meet the customer’s requirements. This also allows the project engineer to be a single point of contact for the customer, allowing him or her to support that customer with any issue or question they might have.

Admittedly this requires a much bigger investment in personnel training to bring the project engineer to this level. But once that level of training is achieved it makes the investment worth it by allowing Sorensen Systems to seamlessly service its customers in a wide variety of projects. I believe that variety, as in the spice of life, is also the spice of successful engineering.

'Micro Hydro' Can Be Real Big for Consumers

Written by: Riccardo Ricci
Project Manager - Sorensen Systems

Don’t let the word “micro” fool you. In the world of modern power generation, micro is a big word. More and more opportunities are arising for government, industry and even individual homeowners to enter the world of “Micro Hydro.”

Recently, we completed an installation of a micro hydro plant for the MWRA at its Loring Road facility in Weston, MA. The storage facility there is part of the massive reservoir and distribution system that brings water from the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs to Boston and other eastern Massachusetts communities. The plant that we installed was designed to take advantage of potential energy that already existed but was not being tapped.

As water flows as a result of gravity from west to east, there is a need to reduce the pressure. A series of pressure reducing valves handles that assignment. But, it was determined that instead of just reducing the water pressure, it could be proactively used to spin a turbine and thus create electricity as a by-product of its energy.

This plant will generate 1.2 million kWh per year, which will power the storage facility and create enough excess electricity that it can be sold back to the public utility. That’s great for the environment, and especially great for the taxpayer. The consumer gets an efficient source of electricity through use of a renewable energy source (water) and then gets to pay less for electricity because the same water creates its own electric power. There’s nothing “micro’ about that. That’s what I call real big for consumers.

You can read more about the Hydroelectric Plant we designed and built for the MWRA on our website. In future blog reports I will tell you about other projects we have completed.

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Energy Policy Tied to Electricity

Written by: Mike Gardella
Engineering Manager - Sorensen Systems


A recent article on the US Dept. of Energy website discussed the importance of electricity to the economic and environmental future of the United States. With more than 50 percent of the electricity in the country coming from coal-fired power plants, it’s hard to imagine that this fuel will soon be discarded. The low cost of coal right now is what keeps it at the forefront of energy policy questions. No one wants to pay too much for electricity.

There are several ways to go here, such as removing some of the environmental objections to the use of coal in current or future power plants. If new technologies are successful in eliminating sulfur, nitrogen and mercury pollutants released when coal is burned, there may be hope to keep it as a continuing participant in the fossil fuel energy world. Further research is underway to increase coal-plant efficiencies and it is predicted that it could double in efficiency in the next 10-15 years. If that’s true, again the future for coal looks brighter.

Even though coal is king right now, natural gas is the fastest growing source of fuel for thermal power plants. As much as 90 percent of future power plant construction in the planning and discussion stage is based on the use of natural gas. Even the so-called “distributed power generators”, which are mini-power plants are destined to be powered by natural gas. The gas-fired turbines in today’s modern power plant is what most of the future looks like, particularly for regions such as New England.

And finally, there is a role to play for new technologies for storage of energy and transmission of energy that will contribute to energy efficiency of the electric industry. Whether its superconducting materials or compressed air storage, there are technologies about to be released that will have a positive impact on your electric rates.

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