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 difficult course of and requires the most important slurry pump in the oil sands business.
When it involves pumping slurry, there can be very few functions which are tougher than the hydro-transport of industrial quality slurries in oil sands production. Not solely do the pumps should cope with the extremely aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re also expected to function in a few of the harshest environments on the earth.
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, namely the Tie Bolt Construction (TBC-92). Named after its 92 in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the largest and heaviest slurry pump available in the oil sands trade and the latest in a line of powerful high-pressure pumps offered by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a considerable range of business sectors, starting from food and beverage to mining. What is widespread to all, is that the pumps used should have the flexibility to transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands manufacturing, the largest problem is to accommodate excessive density slurry and extremely 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 able to delivering excessive flows and capable of stand up to harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has intensive 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 removing of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. The crushed ore is then mixed with warm water to kind a dense slurry that can be transported within the pipeline in path of extraction, where 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 intensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to dealing with huge quantities of liquids at high pressures and high temp- eratures. Drawing on its long experience of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that combine superior supplies, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the newest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW business growth manager, explains more: “Our client needed the next capacity pump which was capable of 10,000–11,000 m3 per hour of output at practically forty m of developed head and a maximum working pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump additionally needed to find a way to pass rocks of roughly a hundred thirty mm in diameter with a complete passage dimension requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in excess of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the shopper was targeting a upkeep interval (operational time between deliberate maintenance) of around 3,000 hours. They had expressed an interest in maximising the maintenance intervals and primarily based on preliminary put on indications, they’re presently hoping to attain round 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The quick application for the primary batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service the place they are used to move bitu- minous ore from the crusher to the extraction plant. The liquid pumped is a mix of water, bitumen, sand, and huge rocks. Screens are in place to keep these rocks to a manageable size for the process, however the high measurement can nonetheless typically reach as much as 130 mm in diameter or larger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from other pumps used in the industry. Wear and erosion are details of life, and GIW has many years of experience in the design of slurry pumps and the event of supplies to assist lengthen the service life of these important components to match the planned maintenance cycles in the plant.
“GIW already had a pump capable of the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a popular size 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 higher stress capabilities and the potential of dealing with larger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which provided the best resolution for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC series The construction fashion of GIW’s TBC pump range features massive, ribbed plates held together with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and maximum wear performance. First developed for dredge service, then later launched into the oil sands in the Nineties, the TBC pump sequence has grown into a totally developed range of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and exhausting rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport functions.
The pumps are sometimes grouped together in booster stations to construct strain as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The sturdy building of the TBC pump is nicely suited to do the job, whereas guaranteeing most availability of the tools under closely abrasive put on.
Capable of delivering pressure as a lot as 37 bar and flows of more than 18,200m³/h and temperatures up to 120o C, the TBC vary is a horizontal, end suction centrifugal pump that gives maximum resistance to wear. Simple to maintain up, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress loads away from the put on and tear resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing side plates without the use of heavy and unwieldy double-wall building.
The TBC-92 combines 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 features from GIW’s MDX product line, which is utilized in heavy-duty mining circuits throughout the world of exhausting 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 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 lower speed additionally provides the pump the ability to operate over a wider range of flows in order to accommodate fluctuating move circumstances.
To make maintenance simpler, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to scale back software time and provide safer lifting. Customers receive pump-specific lifting gadgets to facilitate the safe removal and set up of damage comp- onents. The pump additionally includes a longlasting suction liner that might be adjusted without needing to close the pump down.
New milestone The commissioning of the TBC-92 marks an essential milestone for GIW, which now has pumps in service at all working Canadian oil sands crops for hydrotransport applications. The TBC-92 has been designed to sort out heavy-duty slurry transport while providing a low complete cost of possession. Minimal labour and upkeep time assist to maximise manufacturing and revenue.
“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 have ever designed, specific attention was given to maintainability, as properly as materials selection and development of the pressure-containing parts.”
pressure gauge หน้าปัด 4 นิ้ว has established itself as a major force in pumping options for the oil sands industry is far from shocking on situation that it has been growing pumping applied sciences and wear resistant supplies in the international mining business 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 adding water to the excavated materials it turns into extremely 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 extra benefit of removing the usage of trucks.
GIW has estimated that เกจวัดแรงดันไนโตรเจน of transferring oil sand on this method can minimize prices by US$2 a barrel, and it’s way more environmentally pleasant. These pumps additionally play a major position in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides pumps used in the extraction process and different areas of manufacturing (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the nature of slurries and how they behave when being pumped has been elementary to the event of these merchandise. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from clients over many years for testing hydraulics and materials each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development amenities embody multiple slurry test beds on the campus, together with a hydraulics laboratory that is dedicated to pump performance testing.
These actions are central to the company’s pump development programmes. If corporations are experiencing problems the GIW R&D personnel can see where the issue lies and provide advice for remedial action. Experience does point out that in plenty of cases the problem lies not with the pump nonetheless, however in the interplay between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from customers about appli- cations helps within the improvement of latest tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether prospects and academics from everywhere in the world to share their experience and analysis with in-house experts, the large funding in research, growth and manufacturing has advanced the design of all the GIW pump products,supplies and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a clear trend towards bigger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands aren’t any exception,” feedback Leo Perry, GIW lead product manager. “The first TBC pump within the oil sands industry was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their services for larger and higher production and demanding the same of the equipment that retains their manufacturing shifting. While these larger pumps demand more power, additionally they permit for larger manufacturing with much less downtime required for maintenance. 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 larger services, larger pipelines, and increased manufacturing, all of which proceed to pattern larger year after 12 months. Other prospects and industries have also proven an curiosity in this dimension, and it would be no shock at all to see extra of those pumps constructed within the near future for similar applications.”
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