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 process and requires the most important slurry pump in the oil sands business.
When it comes to pumping slurry, there can be very few purposes that are more difficult than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands production. Not solely do the pumps have to contend with the extremely aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re additionally anticipated to operate in a few of the harshest environments on the planet.
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 92 in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the most important and heaviest slurry pump available in the oil sands trade and the latest in a line of highly effective high-pressure pumps supplied 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 be able to transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands production, the biggest problem is to accommodate excessive density slurry and highly abrasive grits.
It is crucial that the slurry passes by way of the pump with the minimal amount of wear 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 difficult, 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 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 often transported by way of totally different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require extensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to handling huge portions of liquids at high pressures and excessive temp- eratures. Drawing on its lengthy experience 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 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 strain of 4000 kPa. The pump also wanted to have the flexibility to move rocks of approximately 130 mm in diameter with a complete passage dimension requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in extra of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the shopper was focusing on a maintenance interval (operational time between deliberate maintenance) of around three,000 hours. They had expressed an curiosity in maximising the upkeep intervals and based on initial wear indications, they are presently hoping to attain round 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The instant utility for the primary batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service the place they are used to maneuver bitu- minous ore from the crusher to the extraction plant. The liquid pumped is a combination of water, bitumen, sand, and huge rocks. Screens are in place to maintain these rocks to a manageable dimension for the method, however the prime measurement can nonetheless usually attain as much as a 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 trade. Wear and erosion are details of life, and GIW has decades of expertise in the design of slurry pumps and the event of materials to assist extend the service life of those crucial components to match the planned 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 measurement in mill duties for nearly 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s software required a pump with higher stress capabilities and the potential of handling bigger rocks so we responded with the event of the TBC-92 which supplied the most effective answer for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC collection The building type of GIW’s TBC pump vary options massive, 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 within the Nineteen Nineties, the TBC pump series has grown into a completely developed vary of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and onerous rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport functions.
The pumps are sometimes grouped collectively in booster stations to build stress as high as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such long distances. The strong building of the TBC pump is properly suited to do the job, whereas making certain maximum availability of the tools beneath closely abrasive put on.
Capable of delivering stress as a lot as 37 bar and flows of more than 18,200m³/h and temperatures up to 120o C, the TBC range is a horizontal, end suction centrifugal pump that provides most resistance to put on. Simple to take care of, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress masses away from the wear resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing facet plates with out using heavy and unwieldy double-wall development.
The TBC-92 combines one of the best components of earlier TBC fashions, including the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also identified as 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 onerous 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 options of the pump embody a slurry diverter that dramatically increases suction liner life by reducing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The giant diameter impeller permits the pump to run at slower speeds in order that put on life is enhanced. The decrease velocity additionally offers the pump the ability to function over a wider vary of flows to have the ability to accommodate fluctuating circulate conditions.
To make maintenance easier, 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 gadgets to facilitate the secure elimination and installation of wear and tear comp- onents. The pump additionally includes 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 necessary milestone for GIW, which now has pumps in service at all working Canadian oil sands crops for hydrotransport purposes. The TBC-92 has been designed to deal with heavy-duty slurry transport while providing a low complete price of possession. Minimal labour and maintenance time help to maximise manufacturing and profit.
“This new pump incorporates the teachings learned from working within 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’ve ever designed, specific consideration was given to maintainability, in addition to materials choice and development of the pressure-containing components.”
That GIW has established itself as a major pressure in pumping options for the oil sands trade is much from shocking given that it has been growing pumping applied sciences and put on resistant materials in the international mining business because the Forties.
pressure gauge น้ำมัน have had a considerable impact on the method in which that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By adding water to the excavated material it turns into highly environment friendly 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 could be the additional benefit of eradicating using vehicles.
GIW has estimated that the price of transferring oil sand in this means can cut costs by US$2 a barrel, and it is far more environmentally friendly. These pumps additionally play a major position 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 development of those products. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from prospects over many years for testing hydraulics and supplies each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development amenities include a quantity of slurry check 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 corporations are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the issue lies and offer recommendation for remedial action. Experience does indicate that in plenty of instances the problem lies not with the pump however, 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 prospects and lecturers from everywhere in the world to share their experience and research with in-house experts, the large funding in analysis, growth and manufacturing has advanced the design of all the GIW pump products,supplies and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a transparent pattern towards larger 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 business was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their services for higher and higher production and demanding the identical of the gear that retains their manufacturing transferring. While these larger pumps demand more energy, in addition they 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 bigger services, bigger pipelines, and increased manufacturing, all of which proceed to development larger year after 12 months. Other prospects and industries have additionally proven an interest on this size, and it will be no shock at all to see extra of those pumps constructed within the near future for similar applications.”
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