New water pumps save energy and emissions

July 27, 2023

Every year about a million cubic meters of water is pumped out from our quarry in Lappeenranta, Finland.

Nordkalk made renovations to improve the quarry's pump system. It has been updated with some more efficient pumps to helps reduced the energy consumption needed for pumping water by approximately 25 per cent and emissions by 40%.

Pasi Hänninen, who is a Development Projects at Nordkalk Corporation explained, “The aim of the renovation was to replace some of the old pumps with more efficient ones with a better operating efficiency and with a capacity to pump the water the from the bottom of the pit all the way up to the ground.”

Next to the water pumping station, a new medium voltage transformer was built. Thanks to this improvement, the power distribution works in the whole pumping area and there is no need to generate electricity with an internal combustion engine generator running on fuel oil.  

The achieved savings in the comparison period*:

  • Saved energy / pumped cubic meters of water: - 24% (1.57 kWh/cubic meters vs. 1.2 kWh/cubic meters).
  • Monthly emission cuts (CO2) from pumping water: - 40% (76 tonnes/moth vs. 45 tonnes/month).  

*the old one in use 03/21-02/22, the new one in use 04/22-08/22

“There is always room for improvement!” – Pasi Hänninen.  

SigmaRoc is on the road to Net Zero by 2040. The group is committed to ensuring this can be done in a manner where we minimise risks and seize opportunities with the guidance of the principles of ESG. Nordkalk is also committed to the Science Based Targets initiative through SigmaRoc; it’s an ambitious corporate climate action that provides the guidance and tools they need to set science-based net-zero targets.

More information on this subject at Nordkalk News room - https://www.nordkalk.com/new-water-pumps-save-energy-and-emissions-in-lappeenranta-finland/

This case and much more about Nordkalk’s sustainability work in their new Sustainability Report 2022.