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 difficult course of and requires the largest slurry pump in the oil sands trade.
When it involves pumping slurry, there could be only a few functions that are more challenging than the hydro-transport of professional quality slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not solely do the pumps need to deal with the highly aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re also expected to function in some of the harshest environments on the earth.
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, specifically the Tie Bolt Construction (TBC-92). Named after its 92 in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the most important and heaviest slurry pump available in the oil sands industry and the latest in a line of powerful high-pressure pumps supplied by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial range of trade sectors, ranging from food and beverage to mining. What is widespread to all, is that the pumps used must be able to transport liquids containing particles and solids of varying sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands production, the biggest challenge is to accommodate excessive density slurry and highly abrasive grits.
It is essential that the slurry passes via 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 face up to harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has extensive oil reserves and these are in the type of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is challenging, involving the elimination of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. The crushed ore is then combined with heat water to type a dense slurry that might be transported in the pipeline towards extraction, where the bitumen is separated from the sand and rock. After extraction, the remaining solids (or tailings) are sometimes transported via different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require intensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps capable of handling huge quantities of liquids at excessive pressures and excessive temp- eratures. Drawing on its long expertise of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that mix advanced supplies, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the latest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW enterprise development supervisor, explains extra: “Our consumer wanted a higher capacity pump which was capable of 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 also wanted to have the flexibility to pass rocks of approximately one hundred thirty mm in diameter with a complete passage size requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and handle slurry densities in extra of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the client was focusing on a upkeep interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of round three,000 hours. They had expressed an curiosity in maximising the upkeep intervals and based on initial wear indications, they are currently hoping to realize around 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The quick application for the first batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service the place they’re used to maneuver 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 maintain these rocks to a manageable measurement for the process, however the top size can nonetheless typically attain 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 other pumps used in the business. Wear and erosion are details of life, and GIW has decades of expertise in the design of slurry pumps and the development of materials to assist extend the service life of those important elements to match the deliberate upkeep 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 size in mill duties for nearly 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s application required a pump with higher pressure capabilities and the capability of handling larger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which supplied one of the best solution for maximised production.”
The TBC series The building style of GIW’s TBC pump range options massive, ribbed plates held together with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and maximum wear efficiency. First developed for dredge service, then later introduced into the oil sands in the Nineties, the TBC pump sequence has grown into a fully developed range of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and hard rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport applications.
The pumps are sometimes grouped together in booster stations to build strain as high 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, whereas making certain maximum availability of the tools under 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 range is a horizontal, finish suction centrifugal pump that provides most resistance to put on. 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 side plates with out using heavy and unwieldy double-wall development.
The TBC-92 combines the best components of earlier TBC fashions, together with the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also referred to as the Super Pump. The pump also incorporates options from GIW’s MDX product line, which is utilized in heavy-duty mining circuits all through the world of exhausting rock mining.
In total, 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 will increase suction liner life by reducing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The large diameter impeller allows the pump to run at slower speeds so that put on life is enhanced. The decrease velocity also offers the pump the power to operate over a wider vary of flows so as to accommodate fluctuating move conditions.
To make upkeep simpler, the pump is fitted with a special two-piece suction plate design which helps to reduce back tool time and supply safer lifting. Customers receive pump-specific lifting units to facilitate the protected removal and set up of damage comp- onents. The pump additionally includes a longlasting suction liner that might be adjusted without needing to shut 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 tackle heavy-duty slurry transport while providing a low whole cost of ownership. Minimal labour and maintenance time help to maximise production and profit.
“This new pump incorporates the lessons learned from operating in the oil sands over many years, and options our latest hydraulic and put on technologies,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because that is the heaviest TBC pump we now have ever designed, specific attention was given to maintainability, as well as materials selection and construction of the pressure-containing parts.”
That GIW has established itself as a significant drive in pumping solutions for the oil sands industry is much from stunning on situation that it has been developing pumping technologies and wear resistant materials in the world mining trade for the explanation that Nineteen Forties.
These pumps have had a substantial impression on the greatest way that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By including water to the excavated material 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 is transported, plus there is the additional good factor about removing the use of vehicles.
GIW has estimated that the value of transferring oil sand on this way can cut costs by US$2 a barrel, and it is much more environmentally friendly. These pumps additionally play a serious function in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW supplies pumps used in the extraction course of and other areas of manufacturing (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the character of slurries and how they behave when being pumped has been basic to the development of those merchandise. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from prospects over a few years for testing hydraulics and supplies each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development facilities embrace a quantity of slurry take a look at beds on the campus, along with a hydraulics laboratory that is dedicated to pump performance testing.
These actions are central to the company’s pump improvement programmes. If firms are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the problem lies and provide recommendation for remedial motion. Experience does indicate that in plenty of instances the problem lies not with the pump nevertheless, but in the interplay between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from clients about appli- cations helps within the growth of recent tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether clients and lecturers from all around the world to share their experience and research with in-house consultants, the massive funding in analysis, development and manufacturing has superior the design of all the GIW pump merchandise,supplies 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 supervisor. “The first TBC pump in the oil sands industry was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). เกจวัดแรงดันราคา are designing their amenities for larger and better production and demanding the same of the gear that keeps their manufacturing shifting. While these larger pumps demand more energy, additionally they allow for larger manufacturing with much less downtime required for upkeep. Overall, the efficiency improves when in comparison with the same output from a bigger quantity of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with larger facilities, larger pipelines, and elevated production, all of which proceed to development higher 12 months after 12 months. Other clients and industries have additionally proven an interest on this dimension, and it will be no surprise in any respect to see extra of those pumps built in the near future for related applications.”
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