A high-pressure stainless steel pump (1000 psi) with a variable-frequency drive (VFD) is installed in a seawater reverse-osmosis pilot plant that is recovering water from membrane concentrate at a rate of 4 gallons per minute (gpm). The cost of the pump was $13,000. Because of favorable results from the pilot study, the city utility wants to go with a full-scale system that will produce 500 gpm.
Determine the estimated cost of the larger pump, if the exponent in the cost-capacity equation has a value of 0.37.