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 challenging course of and requires the most important slurry pump in the oil sands industry.
When it involves pumping slurry, there could be only a few purposes which may be more difficult than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands production. Not solely do the pumps need to deal with the extremely aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re also expected to function in a few of the harshest environments in the world.
In January 2020, GIW Industries, Inc., a KSB company, 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 newest in a line of powerful high-pressure pumps offered by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial vary of business sectors, ranging from meals and beverage to mining. What is widespread to all, is that the pumps used should be capable of transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands production, the largest challenge is to accommodate high density slurry and highly abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes through the pump with the minimum amount of damage to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, ร้านซ่อมเครื่องวัดความดัน must be able to delivering high flows and in a position to withstand harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has intensive 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 form a dense slurry that can be transported within the pipeline towards extraction, the place the bitumen is separated from the sand and rock. After extraction, the remaining solids (or tailings) are sometimes transported through totally different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require in depth use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to dealing with vast quantities of liquids at excessive pressures and excessive temp- eratures. Drawing on its lengthy expertise of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that combine superior materials, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the most recent of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW enterprise improvement supervisor, explains extra: “Our consumer needed a higher capacity pump which was able to 10,000–11,000 m3 per hour of output at nearly 40 m of developed head and a most working pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump additionally needed to have the flexibility to pass rocks of roughly 130 mm in diameter with a total passage dimension requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and handle slurry densities in excess of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the customer was concentrating on 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’re at present hoping to achieve around 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The quick application for the primary batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service the place they’re used to move bitu- minous ore from the crusher to the extraction plant. The liquid pumped is a mixture of water, bitumen, sand, and huge rocks. Screens are in place to keep these rocks to a manageable size for the method, however the prime measurement can nonetheless often attain up to one hundred thirty mm in diameter or larger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from different pumps used within the industry. Wear and erosion are information of life, and GIW has many years of experience in the design of slurry pumps and the development of materials to help lengthen the service life of these critical components to match the deliberate maintenance cycles within the plant.
“GIW already had a pump able to the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a well-liked dimension in mill duties for almost 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s application required a pump with higher stress capabilities and the capability of dealing with larger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which supplied the best resolution for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC series The construction type of GIW’s TBC pump vary features giant, ribbed plates held along with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and maximum wear performance. First developed for dredge service, then later launched into the oil sands in the 1990s, the TBC pump collection has grown into a fully developed range of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and hard rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport purposes.
The pumps are often grouped together in booster stations to build pressure as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such long distances. The sturdy development of the TBC pump is nicely suited to do the job, while making certain maximum availability of the equipment underneath closely abrasive wear.
Capable of delivering pressure up to 37 bar and flows of more than 18,200m³/h and temperatures up to 120o C, the TBC vary is a horizontal, end suction centrifugal pump that offers most resistance to wear. Simple to take care of, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress hundreds away from the wear resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing aspect plates without the use of heavy and unwieldy double-wall building.
The TBC-92 combines the most effective elements of earlier TBC models, including the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also called the Super Pump. The pump additionally incorporates features from GIW’s MDX product line, which is used in heavy-duty mining circuits all through the world of exhausting rock mining.
In whole, the TBC-92 weighs about 209,000 lbs (95,000 kg), which is roughly equivalent to a fully-loaded Airbus A321 aeroplane. The casing alone weighs 34,000 lbs (15,500 kg). Key features of the pump embrace a slurry diverter that dramatically increases suction liner life by decreasing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The large diameter impeller permits the pump to run at slower speeds in order that put on life is enhanced. The lower velocity additionally offers the pump the ability to function over a wider vary of flows in order to accommodate fluctuating circulate situations.
To make maintenance easier, the pump is fitted with a special two-piece suction plate design which helps to reduce tool time and supply safer lifting. Customers receive pump-specific lifting units to facilitate the safe elimination and set up of wear and tear comp- onents. The pump also includes a longlasting suction liner that can be adjusted without 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 at all operating Canadian oil sands vegetation for hydrotransport applications. The TBC-92 has been designed to tackle heavy-duty slurry transport whereas providing a low total value of possession. Minimal labour and upkeep time assist to maximise manufacturing and profit.
“This new pump incorporates the lessons realized from working in the oil sands over a few years, and options our newest hydraulic and put on applied sciences,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because this is the heaviest TBC pump we now have ever designed, specific consideration was given to maintainability, in addition to materials choice and building of the pressure-containing parts.”
That GIW has established itself as a major force in pumping solutions for the oil sands business is much from stunning given that it has been growing pumping applied sciences and put on resistant supplies in the international mining industry because the Nineteen Forties.
These pumps have had a substantial impression on the method in which that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By including water to the excavated materials it turns into extremely environment friendly to pump the slurry alongside 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 benefit of eradicating using trucks.
GIW has estimated that the worth of transferring oil sand in this way can minimize costs by US$2 a barrel, and it’s much more environmentally friendly. These pumps additionally play a major role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW supplies pumps used in the extraction course of and other areas of production (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the nature of slurries and the way they behave when being pumped has been fundamental to the event of those merchandise. GIW has been acquiring slurry samples from prospects over many years for testing hydraulics and supplies each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development amenities include a number of slurry check beds on the campus, along with a hydraulics laboratory that’s dedicated to pump efficiency testing.
These actions are central to the company’s pump growth programmes. If firms are experiencing problems the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the issue lies and supply recommendation for remedial motion. Experience does indicate that in many cases the problem lies not with the pump nonetheless, but within the interaction between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from prospects about appli- cations helps in the development of latest tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether clients and teachers from all over the world to share their expertise and research with in-house experts, the massive funding in research, development and manufacturing has superior the design of the entire GIW pump products,materials and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a transparent development toward bigger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands aren’t any exception,” feedback Leo Perry, GIW lead product manager. “The first TBC pump within the oil sands industry was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their amenities for higher and higher production and demanding the identical of the equipment that keeps their production transferring. While these bigger pumps demand more energy, in addition they permit for higher production with less downtime required for upkeep. Overall, the effectivity improves when compared to the identical output from a larger amount of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with bigger services, larger pipelines, and increased manufacturing, all of which continue to development larger 12 months after yr. Other prospects and industries have additionally proven an interest in this size, and it will be no surprise at all to see more of these pumps constructed within the close to future for related functions.”
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