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 biggest slurry pump within the oil sands industry.
When it comes to pumping slurry, there may be only a few purposes which are more difficult than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not only do the pumps need to cope with the highly aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re also anticipated to function in a variety 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, particularly the Tie Bolt Construction (TBC-92). Named after its 92 in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the largest and heaviest slurry pump out there within the oil sands industry and the most recent in a line of powerful high-pressure pumps offered by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a considerable vary of business sectors, starting from meals and beverage to mining. What is widespread to all, is that the pumps used should be ready 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 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 have to be able to delivering high flows and able to face up to harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has in depth oil reserves and these are within the type of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is difficult, involving the elimination of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. ไดอะแฟรม ซีล crushed ore is then blended with heat water to kind 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 often transported via different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require extensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to handling vast quantities of liquids at excessive pressures and excessive temp- eratures. Drawing on its long experience of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that combine advanced materials, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the newest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW business growth supervisor, explains more: “Our shopper wanted a better capacity pump which was capable of 10,000–11,000 m3 per hour of output at nearly forty m of developed head and a maximum working stress of 4000 kPa. The pump additionally needed to have the ability to move rocks of approximately a hundred thirty mm in diameter with a total passage size requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in excess of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the customer was targeting a maintenance interval (operational time between deliberate maintenance) of around 3,000 hours. They had expressed an interest in maximising the upkeep intervals and based on preliminary wear indications, they are at present hoping to realize around 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
pressure gauge octa for the primary batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service where they’re 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 keep these rocks to a manageable size for the process, but the top size can nonetheless typically attain up to one hundred thirty mm in diameter or bigger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from other pumps used within the business. Wear and erosion are information of life, and GIW has many years of experience within the design of slurry pumps and the event of supplies to help prolong the service life of those important parts 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 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 bigger rocks so we responded with the event of the TBC-92 which provided the most effective resolution for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC series The construction type of GIW’s TBC pump vary options massive, ribbed plates held along with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and maximum wear performance. First developed for dredge service, then later introduced into the oil sands in the 1990s, the TBC pump collection has grown into a fully developed vary of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and hard rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport functions.
The pumps are often grouped collectively 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 building of the TBC pump is nicely suited to do the job, whereas guaranteeing maximum availability of the tools underneath 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, 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 wear resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing side plates without the usage of heavy and unwieldy double-wall building.
The TBC-92 combines one of the best elements of earlier TBC fashions, including the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also recognized as the Super Pump. The pump additionally incorporates options from GIW’s MDX product line, which is used in heavy-duty mining circuits throughout the world of exhausting rock mining.
In whole, 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 large diameter impeller permits the pump to run at slower speeds so that put on life is enhanced. The decrease pace also offers the pump the power to function over a wider range of flows in order to accommodate fluctuating circulate situations.
To make upkeep easier, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to reduce tool time and provide safer lifting. Customers obtain pump-specific lifting devices to facilitate the secure removal and installation of wear comp- onents. The pump additionally contains a longlasting suction liner that may be adjusted without having to shut 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 working Canadian oil sands vegetation for hydrotransport applications. The TBC-92 has been designed to sort out heavy-duty slurry transport whereas providing a low complete cost of possession. Minimal labour and maintenance time assist to maximise manufacturing and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the lessons discovered from operating in the oil sands over a few years, and features our newest hydraulic and wear applied sciences,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because this is the heaviest TBC pump we now have ever designed, particular consideration was given to maintainability, as nicely as materials selection and building of the pressure-containing elements.”
That GIW has established itself as a significant pressure in pumping options for the oil sands industry is far from stunning provided that it has been developing pumping technologies and put on resistant supplies within the global mining industry for the rationale that 1940s.
These pumps have had a considerable impression on the way that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By adding water to the excavated material it becomes 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’s transported, plus there’s the extra good thing about removing using vehicles.
GIW has estimated that the value of shifting oil sand on this method can reduce costs by US$2 a barrel, and it is far more environmentally friendly. These pumps also play a serious role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW supplies pumps used within the extraction course of and different areas of production (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the character of slurries and the way they behave when being pumped has been fundamental to the development of these products. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from prospects over a few years for testing hydraulics and supplies both for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development amenities embrace multiple slurry check beds on the campus, along with a hydraulics laboratory that’s dedicated to pump performance testing.
These actions are central to the company’s pump development programmes. If companies are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the problem lies and supply advice for remedial motion. Experience does indicate that in many circumstances the problem lies not with the pump however, however in the interplay between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from prospects about appli- cations helps in the growth of latest tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether clients and lecturers from all over the world to share their experience and analysis with in-house consultants, the massive investment in analysis, development and manufacturing has advanced the design of all of the GIW pump merchandise,supplies and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a transparent development 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 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 manufacturing and demanding the identical of the equipment that retains their manufacturing transferring. While these larger pumps demand more energy, in addition they allow for higher manufacturing with less downtime required for upkeep. Overall, the efficiency improves when compared to 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 continue to development greater 12 months after year. Other clients and industries have additionally shown an interest on this dimension, and it will be no shock at all to see more of these pumps built in the near future for related purposes.”
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