Alberta, Canada has the world’s third largest oil reserves within the type of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is a difficult process and requires the most important slurry pump within the oil sands business.
When it involves pumping slurry, there can be very few functions that are tougher than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands production. Not solely do the pumps should cope with the extremely aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re additionally anticipated to operate in a few 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, namely the Tie Bolt Construction (TBC-92). Named after its ninety two 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 provided by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial range of industry sectors, ranging from meals and beverage to mining. What is common to all, is that the pumps used should be succesful of transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and เกจวัดแรงดันน้ำ manufacturing, the biggest challenge is to accommodate excessive density slurry and highly abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes via the pump with the minimum amount of wear and tear to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump should be capable of delivering high flows and able to withstand harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has extensive oil reserves and these are within the form of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is challenging, involving the removing of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. The crushed ore is then mixed with warm water to form a dense slurry that might be transported in the pipeline in course of 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 vast portions 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 combine superior supplies, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the latest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW enterprise development manager, explains extra: “Our client needed the next capability pump which was capable of 10,000–11,000 m3 per hour of output at practically 40 m of developed head and a maximum working pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump also needed to find a way to pass rocks of roughly 130 mm in diameter with a total passage measurement 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 deliberate maintenance) of around three,000 hours. They had expressed an curiosity in maximising the maintenance intervals and based on preliminary wear indications, they’re presently hoping to achieve 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 are used to maneuver bitu- minous ore from the crusher to the extraction plant. The liquid pumped is a mix of water, bitumen, sand, and enormous rocks. Screens are in place to keep these rocks to a manageable size for the process, however the prime size can nonetheless usually attain up to one hundred thirty mm in diameter or larger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from other pumps used within the business. Wear and erosion are details of life, and GIW has decades of experience in the design of slurry pumps and the development of supplies to help lengthen the service life of those critical elements to match the planned maintenance cycles within the plant.
“GIW already had a pump capable of the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a popular measurement in mill duties for practically 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s application required a pump with greater strain capabilities and the capability of handling bigger rocks so we responded with the event of the TBC-92 which offered the best resolution for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC sequence The development style of GIW’s TBC pump range features massive, ribbed plates held together with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and most put on performance. First developed for dredge service, then later introduced into the oil sands within the Nineteen Nineties, the TBC pump series has grown into a completely developed range of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and hard rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport purposes.
The pumps are sometimes grouped collectively in booster stations to construct strain as high as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The robust construction of the TBC pump is properly suited to do the job, while ensuring most availability of the equipment beneath heavily abrasive wear.
Capable of delivering pressure up to 37 bar and flows of greater than 18,200m³/h and temperatures up to 120o C, the TBC range is a horizontal, finish suction centrifugal pump that provides maximum resistance to wear. Simple to maintain up, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress masses away from the put on and tear resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing aspect plates without the utilization of heavy and unwieldy double-wall building.
The TBC-92 combines one of the best parts of earlier TBC models, together with the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also called the Super Pump. The pump also incorporates features from GIW’s MDX product line, which is utilized in heavy-duty mining circuits throughout the world of exhausting rock mining.
In total, 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 will increase suction liner life by lowering particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The large diameter impeller permits the pump to run at slower speeds in order that wear life is enhanced. The lower velocity additionally provides the pump the ability to function over a wider range of flows to find a way to accommodate fluctuating move conditions.
To make upkeep simpler, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to scale back tool time and supply safer lifting. Customers receive pump-specific lifting gadgets to facilitate the safe elimination and set up of damage comp- onents. The pump also includes a longlasting suction liner that can be adjusted without having to close the pump down.
New milestone The commissioning of the TBC-92 marks an important 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 sort out heavy-duty slurry transport whereas providing a low total price of possession. Minimal labour and upkeep time assist to maximise manufacturing and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the teachings discovered from operating within the oil sands over many years, and features our newest hydraulic and wear technologies,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because that is the heaviest TBC pump we now have ever designed, specific consideration was given to maintainability, in addition to materials choice and construction of the pressure-containing elements.”
That GIW has established itself as a major force in pumping options for the oil sands trade is much from stunning given that it has been developing pumping applied sciences and wear resistant materials within the global mining trade because the 1940s.
These pumps have had a considerable influence on the finest way that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By adding water to the excavated materials it turns into 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’s transported, plus there’s the additional advantage of removing the utilization of vans.
GIW has estimated that the value of shifting oil sand on this method can cut costs by US$2 a barrel, and it’s much more environmentally friendly. These pumps additionally play a serious 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 the way they behave when being pumped has been basic to the event of these products. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from clients over many years for testing hydraulics and materials each 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 efficiency testing.
These actions are central to the company’s pump development programmes. If firms are experiencing problems the GIW R&D personnel can see where the problem lies and supply advice for remedial motion. Experience does indicate that in many circumstances the problem lies not with the pump nonetheless, but within the interaction between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from clients about appli- cations helps within the improvement of latest tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether prospects and teachers from everywhere in the world to share their expertise and research with in-house specialists, the large funding in research, development and manufacturing has advanced the design of all the GIW pump merchandise,supplies and wear-resistant parts.
The future “There is a transparent development toward bigger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands aren’t 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 larger and higher manufacturing and demanding the same of the equipment that keeps their manufacturing shifting. While these bigger pumps demand more power, in addition they allow for larger production with much less downtime required for upkeep. Overall, the effectivity improves when compared to the same output from a larger amount 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 pattern higher 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 built in the close to future for related functions.”
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