Cities and industry
The giant impellers that bring water to your tap, take it away again, and keep factories and power plants running.
⏱ 6 min
- Everyday comparisonStep 1 of 6
The city’s heartbeat
Your heart pumps blood to every part of your body, day and night. A city has hearts too: pumping stations that push water to every home, office and fire hydrant.
If they stop, the taps run dry within hours. Almost all of them are centrifugal pumps.
- ExplainedStep 2 of 6
From the river to your tap
Water is pumped from rivers, lakes or wells to a treatment plant, cleaned, then pumped again into the pipes under the streets — often by big double-suction pumps.
Many cities pump it up into water towers or hilltop tanks, so gravity can keep the pressure steady even when the pumps rest.
- ExplainedStep 3 of 6
Up tall buildings
City water pressure can usually push water up only a few storeys on its own. Skyscrapers use in the basement and on middle floors to lift it higher.
- Try itStep 4 of 6
Many stages for high pressure
When one impeller isn’t enough, engineers put several in a row: a pump. Each impeller and its add another step of pressure.
Deep-well pumps and the pumps that feed power-plant boilers can have ten stages or more.
- ExplainedStep 5 of 6
Taking it away again
Sewage flows downhill as far as it can, then lift stations pump it up so it can flow on. They use and impellers that swallow rags without clogging.
In low-lying countries, huge axial pumps keep whole regions dry by lifting rain and river water over the dykes.
- The impeller connectionStep 6 of 6
Inside industry
Power plants pump cooling water by the tonne every second. Mines pump — water thick with crushed rock — with rubber-lined pumps. Oil and gas travel across continents pushed by pipeline pumps and compressors.
Food, drinks, medicines, paper and chemicals are all moved, mixed and heated with impellers. Pumps use roughly a tenth of all the electricity the world produces.
📌 Remember this
Cities run on impellers: pumping stations and boosters bring water to every tap, lift stations carry sewage away, and multistage, slurry and pipeline pumps keep power plants, mines and factories going.