John Crane has helped a German sugar producer cut mechanical seal cooling and lubrication water consumption by approximately 80%, saving more than 6.2 million litres during a six-month production season. The retrofit was implemented across four continuously operating pumps handling sugar-processing streams.
Water consumption on each converted application dropped from 8–12 litres per minute to approximately 1–2 litres per minute. Across the four pumps, the reduction translates into at least 34,560 litres saved every 24 hours and more than 240,000 litres over seven days. Over the full 180-day production campaign, savings exceeded 6.2 million litres.
The retrofit also significantly improved equipment reliability. Before the upgrade, competitor mechanical seals were failing every three to four months due to high heat generation, poor lubrication and abrasive, crystallising media. Since 2019, the four upgraded applications have operated without a reported seal failure, extending seal service life from three to four months to several years.
John Crane engineers selected Type 587, Type 5620 and SB2 Upstream Pumping (USP) seal configurations based on the operating conditions and available installation space. The upgrades covered pumps operating at 80°C to 133°C and 1 to 4 bar, running at 960 rpm, allowing the existing equipment to be upgraded without replacing the pumps. “Saving more than 6.2 million litres of water during a single production campaign is a significant result, but this is also a compelling reliability story. These pumps operate in hot, abrasive process conditions where seals had been failing every three to four months. With no reported seal failures since 2019, the customer is seeing measurable value in water efficiency, maintenance and long-term performance.” said Aziz Sallie, Vice President, Commercial and Service, John Crane.
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