Alberta, Canada has the world’s third largest oil reserves in the type of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is a challenging course of and requires the largest slurry pump within the oil sands trade.
When it comes to pumping slurry, there can be only a few purposes that are more challenging than the hydro-transport of professional quality slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not solely do the pumps have to cope with the highly aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they are additionally anticipated to operate in some of the harshest environments in the world.
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 ninety two in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the biggest and heaviest slurry pump available in the oil sands industry and the latest in a line of highly effective high-pressure pumps provided by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial vary of trade 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 varying sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands production, the largest challenge is to accommodate excessive density slurry and extremely abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes via 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 in a position to withstand harsh operating environments.
Alberta in Canada has extensive oil reserves and these are within 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 blended with heat water to form a dense slurry that might be transported within the pipeline in the course of extraction, the place the bitumen is separated from the sand and rock. After extraction, the remaining solids (or tailings) are sometimes transported through completely different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require extensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps capable of dealing with huge portions of liquids at high pressures and excessive temp- eratures. Drawing on its long expertise of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that combine advanced supplies, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the latest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW business growth supervisor, explains more: “Our shopper wanted the next 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 pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump additionally needed to find a way to cross rocks of roughly 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 shopper was concentrating on a maintenance interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of round 3,000 hours. They had expressed an interest in maximising the maintenance intervals and primarily based on initial wear indications, they are at present hoping to realize around 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The instant utility for the first batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service where they’re used to move 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 measurement for the method, but the high measurement can still often reach as much as 130 mm in diameter or bigger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from other pumps used within the trade. Wear and erosion are details of life, and GIW has a long time of expertise in the design of slurry pumps and the development of materials to help prolong the service life of these critical elements to match the planned maintenance cycles in the plant.
“GIW already had pressure gauge weksler ราคา to the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a well-liked size 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 greater pressure capabilities and the aptitude of handling bigger rocks so we responded with the event of the TBC-92 which offered one of the best resolution for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC series The development type of GIW’s TBC pump vary options massive, ribbed plates held along with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and most wear performance. First developed for dredge service, then later introduced into the oil sands within 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 purposes.
The pumps are often grouped collectively in booster stations to construct pressure as high as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such long distances. The strong construction of the TBC pump is well suited to do the job, while guaranteeing most availability of the gear beneath heavily abrasive wear.
Capable of delivering stress as a lot 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 provides maximum 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 aspect plates without the usage of heavy and unwieldy double-wall building.
The TBC-92 combines one of the best parts of earlier TBC fashions, including the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also called the Super Pump. The pump also incorporates options from GIW’s MDX product line, which is utilized 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 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 in order that wear life is enhanced. The lower velocity additionally provides the pump the flexibility to function over a wider vary of flows so as to accommodate fluctuating flow conditions.
To make maintenance easier, the pump is fitted with a special two-piece suction plate design which helps to scale back software time and provide safer lifting. Customers receive pump-specific lifting units to facilitate the secure elimination and installation of put on and tear comp- onents. The pump additionally includes 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 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 sort out heavy-duty slurry transport whereas providing a low complete price of ownership. Minimal labour and maintenance time assist to maximise production and profit.
“This new pump incorporates the teachings discovered from operating in the oil sands over many years, and options our latest hydraulic and wear technologies,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because this is the heaviest TBC pump we’ve ever designed, specific attention was given to maintainability, as nicely as materials choice and construction of the pressure-containing components.”
That GIW has established itself as a big force in pumping solutions for the oil sands trade is way from surprising on circumstance that it has been growing pumping technologies and wear resistant materials in the world mining industry because the Forties.
These pumps have had a considerable impression on the way that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By including water to the excavated materials it becomes extremely efficient 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 is the additional good factor about removing the use of trucks.
GIW has estimated that the value of moving oil sand in this means can cut costs by US$2 a barrel, and it’s much more environmentally friendly. These pumps additionally play a significant function in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides pumps used in the extraction course of and other areas of production (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the nature 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 clients over a few years for testing hydraulics and materials both for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development facilities embody multiple 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 companies are experiencing problems the GIW R&D personnel can see where the problem lies and provide recommendation for remedial action. Experience does point out that in many circumstances the problem lies not with the pump however, but within the interaction between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from prospects about appli- cations helps within the improvement of recent tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether prospects and lecturers from all over the world to share their expertise and research with in-house specialists, the large investment in analysis, improvement and manufacturing has advanced the design of all the GIW pump merchandise,supplies and wear-resistant components.
The future “There is a clear trend towards larger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands are not any exception,” feedback Leo Perry, GIW lead product manager. “The first TBC pump in the oil sands trade was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their amenities for higher and better manufacturing and demanding the same of the tools that keeps their production shifting. While these larger pumps demand more energy, they also allow for larger manufacturing with less downtime required for maintenance. Overall, the efficiency improves when in comparability with the same output from a larger amount of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with larger services, larger pipelines, and elevated production, all of which continue to development higher year after year. Other customers and industries have also shown an curiosity on this dimension, and it might be no shock at all to see extra of these pumps constructed within the near future for related applications.”
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