Alberta, Canada has the world’s third largest oil reserves in the type of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is a difficult course of and requires the biggest slurry pump in the oil sands industry.
When it involves pumping slurry, there can be very few applications that are tougher than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands production. Not solely do the pumps have to cope with the extremely aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they are also expected to operate in a few of the harshest environments in the world.
In January 2020, GIW Industries, Inc., a KSB firm, commissioned its largest ever heavy-duty centrifugal slurry pump for operation in Canada’s oil sands, namely the Tie Bolt Construction (TBC-92). Named after its 92 in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the largest and heaviest slurry pump obtainable in the oil sands business and the most recent in a line of highly effective high-pressure pumps offered by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial range of business sectors, starting from meals and beverage to mining. What is frequent to all, is that the pumps used should have the power to transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands manufacturing, the most important problem is to accommodate excessive density slurry and highly abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes by way of the pump with the minimal quantity of damage to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump must be able to delivering excessive flows and capable of withstand harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has in depth oil reserves and these are within the form of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is challenging, involving the removal of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. The crushed ore is then mixed with warm water to kind a dense slurry that can be transported within the pipeline in course of extraction, the place the bitumen is separated from the sand and rock. After extraction, the remaining solids (or tailings) are sometimes transported by way of completely different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require extensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to handling vast quantities of liquids at high pressures and excessive temp- eratures. Drawing on its lengthy expertise of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that mix advanced materials, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the latest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW enterprise development supervisor, explains extra: “Our client needed a better capacity pump which was able to 10,000–11,000 m3 per hour of output at nearly forty m of developed head and a maximum working pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump also wanted to have the power to cross rocks of roughly a hundred thirty mm in diameter with a total passage size requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in extra of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the client was targeting a maintenance interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of round 3,000 hours. They had expressed an interest in maximising the upkeep intervals and primarily based on initial put on indications, they are at present hoping to achieve around 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The instant software for the first batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service where they are used to maneuver bitu- minous ore from the crusher to the extraction plant. The liquid pumped is a mix of water, bitumen, sand, and large rocks. Screens are in place to maintain these rocks to a manageable dimension for the method, however the prime measurement can still typically attain up to one hundred thirty mm in diameter or bigger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from other pumps used within the trade. Wear and erosion are facts of life, and GIW has many years of expertise within the design of slurry pumps and the event of supplies to help prolong the service life of those important elements to match the deliberate maintenance cycles in the plant.
“GIW already had a pump capable of the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a popular dimension in mill duties for almost 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s utility required a pump with larger stress capabilities and the capability of handling bigger rocks so we responded with the event of the TBC-92 which offered the best solution for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC sequence The construction fashion of GIW’s TBC pump range features massive, ribbed plates held together with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and most put on efficiency. First developed for dredge service, then later introduced into the oil sands within the Nineties, the TBC pump series has grown into a fully developed range of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and onerous rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport functions.
The pumps are often grouped together in booster stations to construct strain as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The strong construction of the TBC pump is well suited to do the job, whereas making certain most availability of the gear beneath heavily abrasive put on.
Capable of delivering pressure as much as 37 bar and flows of greater than 18,200m³/h and temperatures as much as 120o C, the TBC range is a horizontal, end suction centrifugal pump that gives most resistance to put on. Simple to maintain, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress hundreds away from the damage resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing aspect plates without using heavy and unwieldy double-wall development.
The TBC-92 combines one of the best elements of earlier TBC models, together with the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also recognized as the Super Pump. The pump additionally incorporates options from GIW’s MDX product line, which is used in heavy-duty mining circuits all through the world of hard rock mining.
In total, the TBC-92 weighs about 209,000 lbs (95,000 kg), which is roughly equal to a fully-loaded Airbus A321 aeroplane. The casing alone weighs 34,000 lbs (15,500 kg). เกจวัดแรงดันpressuregauge of the pump embody a slurry diverter that dramatically increases suction liner life by decreasing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The large diameter impeller allows the pump to run at slower speeds in order that wear life is enhanced. The lower speed also provides the pump the flexibility to operate over a wider vary of flows so as to accommodate fluctuating circulate circumstances.
To make maintenance simpler, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to scale back tool time and supply safer lifting. Customers obtain pump-specific lifting devices to facilitate the protected removing and set up of damage comp- onents. The pump also features a longlasting suction liner that can be adjusted while not having to close the pump down.
New milestone The commissioning of the TBC-92 marks an essential milestone for GIW, which now has pumps in service in any respect operating Canadian oil sands crops for hydrotransport functions. The TBC-92 has been designed to deal with heavy-duty slurry transport while providing a low total value of ownership. Minimal labour and maintenance time help to maximise manufacturing and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the lessons learned from working in the oil sands over a few years, and features our newest hydraulic and put on technologies,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because this is the heaviest TBC pump we have ever designed, explicit attention was given to maintainability, in addition to material choice and building of the pressure-containing parts.”
That GIW has established itself as a major pressure in pumping options for the oil sands trade is way from stunning provided that it has been developing pumping applied sciences and put on resistant supplies within the world mining industry for the reason that Nineteen Forties.
These pumps have had a substantial influence on the means in which that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By adding water to the excavated material it becomes extremely efficient to pump the slurry along a pipeline to the upgrader. The pipeline agitation assists in separating the bitumen from the sand as it is transported, plus there is the additional good thing about eradicating using vans.
GIW has estimated that the price of shifting oil sand in this method can reduce costs by US$2 a barrel, and it is much more environmentally friendly. These pumps also play a serious role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides pumps used in the extraction process and different areas of manufacturing (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the character of slurries and the way they behave when being pumped has been fundamental to the event of these products. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from clients over a few years for testing hydraulics and supplies both for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development facilities embody multiple slurry take a look at beds on the campus, along with a hydraulics laboratory that is dedicated to pump efficiency testing.
These activities are central to the company’s pump development programmes. If firms are experiencing problems the GIW R&D personnel can see where the issue lies and offer advice for remedial motion. Experience does indicate that in many circumstances the problem lies not with the pump nonetheless, however within the interplay between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from clients about appli- cations helps within the improvement of new tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether customers and lecturers from all round the world to share their experience and analysis with in-house specialists, the large funding in analysis, growth and manufacturing has superior the design of the entire GIW pump products,supplies and wear-resistant components.
The future “There is a transparent trend toward larger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands are not any exception,” comments Leo Perry, GIW lead product manager. “The first TBC pump in the oil sands trade was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their services for larger and better production and demanding the identical of the gear that retains their manufacturing moving. While these larger pumps demand extra energy, in addition they permit for larger manufacturing with much less downtime required for upkeep. Overall, the efficiency improves when compared to the same output from a larger quantity of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with bigger amenities, larger pipelines, and increased production, all of which continue to trend larger year after 12 months. Other clients and industries have additionally proven an curiosity on this measurement, and it will be no shock at all to see more of these pumps constructed within the near future for related purposes.”
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