Minnkota donates pump to BSC

Minnkota’s Young Station team recently had a chance to both upgrade its machinery and help support local college students in a single project. The win-win opportunity arose early in December, when Minnkota donated a high-pressure ash pump (HPAP) and motor to Bismarck State College (BSC) to be used in its power plant technology program.

The 1D HPAP was used as a part of the Young Station’s old bottom ash system that utilized four total pumps – two per unit. As part of an upgrade, a common header was created to allow for redundancy in the pumps, as well as dual-unit control. The design of the other three pumps was modified to better fit the system, so the 1D HPAP was out of date and could no longer work with the system.

Since it wasn't necessary to keep the pump and its motor, senior plant specialist Tod Baer suggested they be donated to BSC – something that has been done with equipment in past upgrade projects that resulted in obsolete equipment. Plant engineer Sam Schwanberg reached out to a BSC representative, who was happy to accept the donations.

“We can do our part to provide better learning opportunities and continue to get people interested in the power industry,” Schwanberg said. “This pump and motor will provide great hands-on experience to the mechanical and electrical departments within BSC, with equipment that would otherwise be unavailable to them.”

Schwanberg added that the knowledge students gain from the 1D pump and motor will be highly transferrable, as many pump and motor systems share similar characteristics.