Alberta, Canada has the world’s third largest oil reserves within 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 business.
When it involves pumping slurry, there could be only a few applications which would possibly be tougher than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not only do the pumps need to contend with the extremely aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re also expected to operate in a variety of the harshest environments on the earth.
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 biggest and heaviest slurry pump out there within the oil sands trade and the newest in a line of highly effective high-pressure pumps supplied by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial range of business sectors, ranging from food and beverage to mining. What is widespread to all, is that the pumps used must be capable of transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands manufacturing, the largest problem is to accommodate high density slurry and extremely abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes via the pump with the minimum amount of put on and tear to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump must be able to delivering high flows and capable of withstand harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has extensive oil reserves and these are in the form of oil sands. Extracting and processing เกจ์วัดแรงดันน้ำ 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 blended with heat water to type a dense slurry that can be transported within the pipeline in direction 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 different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require extensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to handling huge portions 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 supplies, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the newest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW enterprise improvement manager, explains extra: “Our shopper needed the next capacity pump which was able to 10,000–11,000 m3 per hour of output at almost forty m of developed head and a maximum working stress of 4000 kPa. The pump additionally wanted to have the ability to pass rocks of roughly a hundred thirty mm in diameter with a total passage dimension requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in excess of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the shopper was concentrating on a upkeep interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of around 3,000 hours. They had expressed an curiosity in maximising the maintenance intervals and primarily based on initial put on indications, they’re at present hoping to realize round 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The instant application for the first batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service where they are 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 dimension for the method, but the top dimension can nonetheless typically reach as a lot as 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 details of life, and GIW has many years of experience in the design of slurry pumps and the event of materials to assist prolong the service life of those critical elements to match the planned upkeep cycles within the plant.
“GIW already had a pump capable of the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a well-liked dimension in mill duties for nearly 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s utility required a pump with higher stress capabilities and the aptitude of handling bigger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which offered the most effective answer for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC series The development fashion of GIW’s TBC pump vary features giant, ribbed plates held along with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and most wear efficiency. First developed for dredge service, then later launched into the oil sands within the Nineties, the TBC pump collection has grown into a completely developed vary of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and hard rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport purposes.
The pumps are sometimes grouped together in booster stations to build strain as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The robust building of the TBC pump is nicely suited to do the job, while ensuring most availability of the tools underneath heavily abrasive put on.
Capable of delivering stress as much as 37 bar and flows of greater than 18,200m³/h and temperatures as a lot as 120o C, the TBC range is a horizontal, finish suction centrifugal pump that offers most resistance to wear. Simple to maintain, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress hundreds away from the damage resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing side plates with out the use of heavy and unwieldy double-wall building.
The TBC-92 combines one of the best elements of earlier TBC fashions, together with the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also called the Super Pump. The pump also incorporates features from GIW’s MDX product line, which is utilized in heavy-duty mining circuits all through the world of exhausting rock mining.
In complete, 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). Key features of the pump include a slurry diverter that dramatically will increase suction liner life by decreasing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The giant diameter impeller allows the pump to run at slower speeds so that put on life is enhanced. The lower speed also gives the pump the ability to function over a wider vary of flows in order to accommodate fluctuating flow conditions.
To make upkeep simpler, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to reduce back device time and supply safer lifting. Customers obtain pump-specific lifting gadgets to facilitate the protected removal and installation of wear and tear comp- onents. The pump additionally features 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 important milestone for GIW, which now has pumps in service in any respect operating Canadian oil sands vegetation for hydrotransport functions. The TBC-92 has been designed to tackle heavy-duty slurry transport while providing a low complete price of possession. Minimal labour and maintenance time assist to maximise production and profit.
“This new pump incorporates the lessons learned from operating in the oil sands over many years, and features our newest hydraulic and put on applied sciences,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because that is the heaviest TBC pump we now have ever designed, explicit consideration was given to maintainability, in addition to material choice and development of the pressure-containing components.”
That GIW has established itself as a major force in pumping solutions for the oil sands trade is much from stunning on situation that it has been developing pumping applied sciences and wear resistant materials in the international mining business for the explanation that Forties.
These pumps have had a substantial impression on the way that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By including water to the excavated materials it turns into highly 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’s transported, plus there is the extra benefit of eradicating using trucks.
GIW has estimated that the cost of transferring oil sand in this method can cut prices by US$2 a barrel, and it is much more environmentally friendly. These pumps additionally play a major role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW supplies pumps used within the extraction course of and other areas of production (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the character of slurries and how they behave when being pumped has been elementary to the development of those products. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from prospects over many years for testing hydraulics and materials each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development facilities include multiple slurry take a look at beds on the campus, along with a hydraulics laboratory that is dedicated to pump performance testing.
These activities are central to the company’s pump development programmes. If firms are experiencing problems the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the problem lies and offer recommendation for remedial motion. Experience does point out that in lots of instances the issue lies not with the pump nevertheless, however in the interaction between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from clients about appli- cations helps in the development of recent tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether prospects and lecturers from everywhere in the world to share their expertise and analysis with in-house specialists, the massive investment in research, growth and manufacturing has advanced the design of all of the GIW pump products,materials and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a clear pattern 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 within the oil sands industry was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their amenities for greater and better manufacturing and demanding the identical of the tools that retains their manufacturing transferring. While these larger pumps demand extra power, in addition they enable for higher manufacturing with less downtime required for maintenance. Overall, the effectivity improves when in comparability with the identical output from a larger quantity of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with larger amenities, bigger pipelines, and increased manufacturing, all of which continue to development larger yr after 12 months. Other customers and industries have also proven an interest on this size, and it might be no shock in any respect to see extra of these pumps constructed within the near future for comparable functions.”
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