Resilient submersible pumps for community water supply in East Africa

用于东非社区供水的弹性潜水泵

• 批准号: 133963
• 金额: $ 7.49万
• 依托单位: THERMOFLUIDICS LTD.
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Knowledge Transfer Network
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=133963
• 关键词: Resilient; submersible; pumps; community; water

This project will address the need for a resilient groundwater pump for drinking water-supply, targeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 & 6.The traditional approach to rural water provision in developing countries is to install handpumps in capped boreholes or hand-dug wells. Whilst handpumps have brought improved water to millions, they are labour intensive, maintenance intensive and suffer from under-developed supply chains of labour and parts. Often, they are not maintained and an estimated 1/4 of them don't work (Foster et al., 2019).Solar-powered submersibles are an increasingly popular alternative to handpumps [RWSN], but they fall short during cloudy conditions or due to failures caused by silt/grit, overheating and dry-running. Unlike submersibles, surface-pumps raise water by suction from ground level. They are cheaper, more efficient, longer lasting and easier to swap-out and maintain than submersibles, in which motors and sliding seals must be submerged. However, they are limited to drawing water from within ~7m depth, representing <10% of cases (BGS,2011).The "Impact Pump" is a novel "range extender" using acoustic phenomena to enable surface-pumps to access deep groundwater without fault-prone parts below ground. Related technologies have operated continuously for over a hundred years. Two years of field trials in smallholder irrigation have shown that failures are rare and constrained to the surface (drive)-pump, which can be swapped-out in under two minutes. Manual or fuel-driven drive-pumps can provide temporary backup. The Impact Pump is grit-tolerant, insensitive to water-level variations, and can run dry for extended periods without damage; self-priming when levels recover.In this project, we will investigate whether these attributes can be advantageous in rural water service delivery. We will explore a range of implementation options based around a template field design. These will address variations in the commercial, social, institutional and environmental context associated with different sites, with a common aim of ensuring continuity of supply in the events of cloud cover or pump failure. The feasibility phase will also assess partnerships required to run a demonstrator and local supply chains for equipment and expertise. Two "breadboard" installations will be established by Thermofluidics and FundiFix near Kitui, Kenya. The project will determine whether the maintenance benefits already demonstrated in agriculture, can translate to water supply. If successful, demonstrators will be rolled-out in phase 2, showing substantial capacity for impact on rural water security, business and maintenance models, and the costs underpinning it, across the globe.

该项目将解决对用于饮用水供应的弹性地下水泵的需求，以实现可持续发展目标（SDG）3和6。发展中国家农村供水的传统方法是在带盖的钻孔或手挖威尔斯井中安装手泵。虽然手泵为数百万人带来了更好的水，但它们是劳动密集型的，维护密集型的，并且受到劳动力和零部件供应链不发达的影响。通常，它们不被维护，估计其中1/4不起作用（Foster等人，太阳能潜水器是越来越受欢迎的手泵替代品[RWSN]，但在多云条件下或由于淤泥/砂砾，过热和干运行引起的故障，它们会出现不足。与潜水器不同的是，水面泵是从地面抽水的。它们比潜水器更便宜，更有效，更持久，更容易更换和维护，因为潜水器中的电机和滑动密封件必须浸没在水中。然而，它们仅限于从~ 7米深度内抽水，占不到10%的情况（英国地质调查局，2011年）。“冲击泵”是一种新型的“增程器”，利用声学现象使地面泵能够进入深层地下水，而不会进入地下易发生故障的部分。相关技术已经连续运行了一百多年。在小农灌溉中进行的两年田间试验表明，故障很少发生，并且仅限于表面（驱动）泵，可以在两分钟内更换。手动或燃油驱动泵可提供临时备用。冲击泵耐砂砾，对水位变化不敏感，可以长时间无水运行而不会损坏;水位恢复时自吸。在本项目中，我们将研究这些属性是否可以在农村供水服务中发挥优势。我们将探索一系列基于模板字段设计的实现选项。这将解决与不同地点有关的商业、社会、体制和环境方面的差异，共同目标是确保在云层覆盖或水泵故障时的供应连续性。可行性阶段还将评估运行演示器所需的伙伴关系以及设备和专业知识的当地供应链。Thermofluidics和FundiFix将在肯尼亚基图伊附近建立两个“试验板”装置。该项目将确定在农业中已经证明的维护效益是否可以转化为供水。如果成功的话，示范项目将在第二阶段推广，展示对地球仪的农村水安全、商业和维护模式以及支撑其的成本产生重大影响的能力。