Volvo Penta hits the road with BBA Pumps
Volvo Penta and BBA Pumps have partnered together on a special fuel-efficient high-flow pump unit used in a major Dutch highway project.
Volvo Penta and Holland-based mobile pump manufacturer BBA Pumps are assisting with a major highway project in the Netherlands, providing maritime and infrastructure services giant Boskalis Nederland with a high-flow dewatering pump unit to rid the highway jobsite of excess water.
BBA Pumps has used the complete range of Volvo Penta engines for around a decade in pumps whose applications range from firefighting to sewer bypass to flood control.
“We work with Volvo Penta because they have excellent brand recognition, of course, as well as being easy to do business with,” says Henno Schothorst, BBA Pumps’ product manager. “They’re also known for their service organization in Europe. They are the brand to use when it comes to service.
“But for us, the main benefit is that Volvo Penta engines suit our applications — they’re easy to install, and the range of power settings they offer is ideal.”
That suitability was especially evident in one of BBA Pumps’s most recent projects with Boskalis Technical Service Nederland (Boskalis Nederland’s internal rental company), which manages mobile pump units with high and ultra-high flows. The company has strict requirements for its pumps, which work in a variety of projects around the world. These specifications include high fuel efficiency and the lowest possible exhaust emissions. For easy handling and job site suitability, Boskalis requires a maximum weight of no more than 12,000 kg and dimensions that will allow it to fit inside a 20-foot container.
When Boskalis Nederland needed a pump to support the widening and partial rerouting of the A1 motorway that runs through Muiden, Netherlands, it deployed a BBA water transfer pump unit — a BA-C500S11 D711. As Boskalis pumps a mixture of sand and water along the existing highway to create a base for the extra lanes, the BBA unit pumps excess water to a reservoir three kilometers away. The pump is equipped with a 13-liter Stage IV Volvo Penta TAD1374VE engine (375 kW). The engine is among the most fuel efficient in its class at 207 g/kWh and is equipped with a cooling package and a newly developed lightweight canopy. In part because of Volvo Penta’s compact but powerful unit, the pump fits easily into a 20-foot container and weighs just 10,800 kg.
Thus far, Boskalis Nederland employees have been impressed with the unit’s performance — including its low noise levels. Operators have remarked on the pump’s lack of smoke from exhaust at start-up, as well as its ability to work at half throttle to do the job — at 1,250 rpm, the engine provides as much capacity as the previous engine did at 2,000 rpm.
Because of the success of the Volvo Penta-powered pump on the job site, BBA Pumps decided to include the unit — built to Boskalis’s specs — in its standard product range. “We can’t ignore this any longer,” says Henno. “This is a pump unit for the future.”