Advantages Screw Turbines

Advantages

+ Lifetime
The Spaans Babcock Screw Turbine is robust, extremely reliable and has a long life time. The Spaans Babcock Screw Turbine consists of only a few wear parts. The low rotational frequency results in low wear and very low maintenance costs. A lifetime exceeding 30 years is not an exception, whereas the efficiency stays constant over the years.

+ Low Head
The Screw Turbine is especially suitable for low heads, already starting from 1 m. This may go up to 12 m for a single stage, or 24 m for a two stage installation.

+ Efficiency
The efficiency curve shows a flat and high efficiency over a wide range of the capacity. Varying heads and capacity hardly have any effect on the efficiency.

+ Costs
The Screw Turbine does not need any grease pump for lubrication of the bottom bearing. This improves the efficiency and lowers the operational costs.

+ Other turbines
The Screw Turbine has a very high efficiency compared to other types of small turbines.

+ Fish friendly
Several tests have demonstrated the fish friendliness of the Screw Turbine and Screw Pump. The Screw Pump can also be used as a fish ladder by pumping the fish.

+ Free passage
Large solid particles, such as plastic, wood or small stones, can pass the Screw Turbine, without having any effect on the Screw Turbine or its efficiency.

+ Bar screen
For safety reasons, only a simple static bar screen is required upstream of the Screw Tubine. This saves costs, prevents head loss and allows fish to pass.

+ Speed
The Screw Turbine can be designed with variable and fixed speeds. Each system will be designed to match flow patterns and as such optimise revenue.

+ Power
The power production is up to 500 kW per Screw Turbine and extended by multiple screws easy to >2MW per site.

+ Flow
The Screw Turbine can handle flows from 100 l/sec up to 15 m3/sec per screw turbine.

+ Systems
Multi-Stage and parallel systems are possible. The system will be designed to maximise revenue from higher heads or larger flows than is possible with a single Turbine.

+ Cleaning
Cleaning of the Screw Turbine is not necessary. The Screw Turbine is self-cleaning. There will be no efficiency loss due to dirt build up.

+ Construction costs
Civil construction costs for the Screw Turbine are generally lower than for other types of turbines. Screw Turbine systems are specifically designed to suit existing civil layouts.

+ Quiet
Optimal design of the Turbine and control system helps to minimise or eliminate noise generation.