Alberta, Canada has the world’s third largest oil reserves within the form of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is a challenging process and requires the largest slurry pump in the oil sands business.
When it involves pumping slurry, there may be only a few applications that are more challenging than the hydro-transport of professional quality slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not solely do the pumps need to contend with the highly aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re additionally expected to function 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, specifically the Tie Bolt Construction (TBC-92). Named after its ninety two in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the biggest and heaviest slurry pump available in the oil sands business and the newest in a line of highly effective high-pressure pumps provided by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a considerable vary of trade sectors, starting from meals and beverage to mining. What is เกจวัดแรงดันแก๊สlpg to all, is that the pumps used must have the ability to transport liquids containing particles and solids of varying sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands production, the most important problem is to accommodate excessive density slurry and extremely abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes by way of the pump with the minimum amount of damage to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump have to be capable of delivering excessive flows and in a place to withstand harsh operating 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 difficult, involving the removing of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. The crushed ore is then combined with heat water to form 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 via completely different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require intensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps capable of dealing with vast portions of liquids at high pressures and high temp- eratures. Drawing on its lengthy experience of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that mix advanced supplies, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the newest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW enterprise improvement manager, explains more: “Our client wanted the next capability pump which was able to 10,000–11,000 m3 per hour of output at practically forty m of developed head and a most working pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump also needed to have the ability to pass rocks of roughly one hundred thirty mm in diameter with a complete passage dimension requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in excess of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the customer was concentrating on a upkeep interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of round three,000 hours. They had expressed an interest in maximising the upkeep intervals and based on initial wear indications, they are currently hoping to realize round 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The quick utility for the primary 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 enormous rocks. Screens are in place to keep these rocks to a manageable dimension for the process, however the prime measurement can nonetheless typically reach up to one hundred thirty mm in diameter or bigger.
เกจวัดแรงดันลมคือ of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from other pumps used in the trade. Wear and erosion are details of life, and GIW has a long time of experience within the design of slurry pumps and the development of supplies to help prolong the service life of these critical elements to match the planned upkeep cycles in the plant.
“GIW already had a pump able to the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a preferred dimension in mill duties for practically 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s utility required a pump with higher pressure capabilities and the capability of dealing with bigger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which supplied one of the best solution for maximised production.”
The TBC sequence The building fashion of GIW’s TBC pump range features giant, ribbed plates held together with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and maximum put on performance. First developed for dredge service, then later launched into the oil sands in the 1990s, the TBC pump series has grown into a fully developed vary of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and exhausting rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport functions.
The pumps are often grouped together in booster stations to construct pressure as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The sturdy building of the TBC pump is nicely suited to do the job, while guaranteeing most availability of the gear underneath heavily abrasive put on.
Capable of delivering stress up to 37 bar and flows of more than 18,200m³/h and temperatures as a lot as 120o C, the TBC vary is a horizontal, end suction centrifugal pump that gives maximum resistance to put on. Simple to keep up, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress loads away from the damage resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing aspect plates with out the use of heavy and unwieldy double-wall construction.
The TBC-92 combines the best components of earlier TBC fashions, 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 utilized in heavy-duty mining circuits throughout the world of hard 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 options of the pump embrace a slurry diverter that dramatically increases suction liner life by lowering particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The giant diameter impeller permits the pump to run at slower speeds in order that wear life is enhanced. The lower pace also provides the pump the ability to operate over a wider vary of flows to be able to accommodate fluctuating move conditions.
To make upkeep easier, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to scale back device time and provide safer lifting. Customers receive pump-specific lifting units to facilitate the secure removing and installation of damage comp- onents. The pump also includes a longlasting suction liner that can be adjusted without needing to close the pump down.
New milestone The commissioning of the TBC-92 marks an necessary 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 deal with heavy-duty slurry transport whereas offering a low total price of ownership. Minimal labour and maintenance time assist to maximise manufacturing and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the lessons realized from operating in the oil sands over many years, and features our newest hydraulic and put on technologies,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because this is the heaviest TBC pump we’ve ever designed, specific consideration was given to maintainability, as nicely as materials choice and construction of the pressure-containing parts.”
That GIW has established itself as a significant drive in pumping options for the oil sands industry is much from stunning given that it has been developing pumping technologies and put on resistant supplies within the world mining industry because the Nineteen Forties.
These pumps have had a considerable influence on the way that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By including water to the excavated materials it becomes highly efficient to pump the slurry along a pipeline to the upgrader. The pipeline agitation assists in separating the bitumen from the sand as it’s transported, plus there’s the extra benefit of removing using vehicles.
GIW has estimated that the value of shifting oil sand in this way can reduce costs by US$2 a barrel, and it’s way more environmentally pleasant. These pumps also play a major role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides pumps used within the extraction process 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 event of these products. GIW has been acquiring slurry samples from clients over a few years for testing hydraulics and materials each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development amenities embody multiple slurry take a look at beds on the campus, along with a hydraulics laboratory that is devoted to pump performance testing.
These activities are central to the company’s pump development programmes. If firms are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the issue lies and offer advice for remedial action. Experience does point out that in many instances the issue lies not with the pump nonetheless, however within the interplay between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from prospects about appli- cations helps in the improvement of new instruments and pump designs. By bringing to- gether customers and lecturers from all over the world to share their expertise and analysis with in-house specialists, the large investment in analysis, improvement and manufacturing has advanced the design of all the GIW pump merchandise,materials and wear-resistant components.
The future “There is a clear pattern toward bigger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands are not any exception,” feedback Leo Perry, GIW lead product supervisor. “The first TBC pump in the oil sands industry was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their amenities for greater and higher production and demanding the same of the equipment that keeps their production moving. While these larger pumps demand more power, they also permit for greater manufacturing with much less downtime required for maintenance. Overall, the effectivity 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 larger amenities, larger pipelines, and increased manufacturing, all of which proceed to pattern greater yr after 12 months. Other clients and industries have also proven an interest in this measurement, and it will be no surprise at all to see extra of these pumps constructed within the near future for similar purposes.”
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