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 challenging process and requires the most important slurry pump within the oil sands industry.
When it comes to pumping slurry, there may be very few applications that are tougher than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands production. Not only do the pumps have to deal with the highly aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they are also 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, particularly 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 within the oil sands industry and the most recent in a line of highly effective high-pressure pumps supplied by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial vary of business sectors, starting from meals and beverage to mining. What is common 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 manufacturing, the most important problem is to accommodate high density slurry and extremely abrasive grits.
It is essential that the slurry passes by way of the pump with the minimum amount of put on and tear to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump should be able to delivering high flows and in a place to stand up to harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has intensive oil reserves and these are in the form of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is challenging, involving the removal of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. The crushed ore is then combined with heat water to form a dense slurry that can be transported within the pipeline in course of extraction, the place the bitumen is separated from the sand and rock. After extraction, the remaining solids (or tailings) are often transported through 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 mix advanced materials, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the most recent of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW business development supervisor, explains more: “Our client wanted a better capability 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 be able to pass rocks of roughly a hundred thirty mm in diameter with a complete passage measurement requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in excess of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the customer was concentrating on a upkeep interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of around 3,000 hours. They had expressed an curiosity in maximising the maintenance intervals and based mostly on preliminary put on indications, they’re currently hoping to achieve around 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The immediate software 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 combination of water, bitumen, sand, and enormous rocks. Screens are in place to maintain these rocks to a manageable size for the process, but the top dimension can nonetheless typically reach up to a hundred thirty mm in diameter or bigger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from other pumps used in the trade. Wear and erosion are facts of life, and GIW has many years of expertise within the design of slurry pumps and the development of materials to help lengthen the service life of those important components to match the deliberate upkeep cycles within the plant.
“GIW already had a pump capable of the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a preferred dimension in mill duties for almost 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s utility required a pump with higher pressure capabilities and the capability of handling larger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which offered the best answer for maximised production.”
The TBC collection The construction fashion of GIW’s TBC pump range features massive, ribbed plates held together with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and most wear efficiency. First developed for dredge service, then later launched into the oil sands within the Nineties, the TBC pump sequence has grown into a completely developed range 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 build pressure as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such long distances. The sturdy construction of the TBC pump is properly suited to do the job, whereas guaranteeing most availability of the equipment beneath heavily 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 most resistance to wear. Simple to take care of, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress masses away from the damage resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing aspect plates without using heavy and unwieldy double-wall development.
The TBC-92 combines the best parts of earlier TBC fashions, including the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also referred to as the Super Pump. The pump also incorporates features from GIW’s MDX product line, which is utilized in heavy-duty mining circuits all through 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 include a slurry diverter that dramatically increases suction liner life by lowering particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The massive diameter impeller allows the pump to run at slower speeds in order that put on life is enhanced. The lower velocity additionally offers the pump the flexibility to operate over a wider vary of flows to have the ability to accommodate fluctuating flow situations.
To make upkeep simpler, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to cut back device time and supply safer lifting. Customers receive pump-specific lifting devices to facilitate the protected removal and installation of wear and tear comp- onents. The pump additionally features a longlasting suction liner that may be adjusted without needing 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 in any respect operating Canadian oil sands vegetation for hydrotransport purposes. The TBC-92 has been designed to tackle heavy-duty slurry transport while providing a low complete price of ownership. Minimal labour and upkeep time help to maximise production and profit.
“This new pump incorporates the lessons realized from working within 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 now have ever designed, explicit attention was given to maintainability, as properly as materials choice and construction of the pressure-containing components.”
That GIW has established itself as a big drive in pumping options for the oil sands business is much from shocking provided that it has been growing pumping applied sciences and wear resistant materials within the international mining trade for the explanation that Forties.
These pumps have had a substantial influence on the way in which that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By adding water to the excavated materials it becomes highly efficient to pump the slurry alongside 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 benefit of removing the use of vans.
GIW has estimated that the cost of transferring oil sand in this method can cut costs by US$2 a barrel, and it’s way more environmentally pleasant. These pumps additionally play a serious role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides จำหน่ายเกจวัดแรงดัน used in the extraction process and different areas of manufacturing (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the character of slurries and how they behave when being pumped has been basic to the development of these products. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from prospects over a few years for testing hydraulics and materials both for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development facilities include multiple slurry check beds on the campus, together with a hydraulics laboratory that’s dedicated to pump performance testing.
These activities are central to the company’s pump growth programmes. If firms are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the issue lies and supply recommendation for remedial motion. Experience does indicate that in many circumstances the problem lies not with the pump nevertheless, however in the interaction between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from clients about appli- cations helps within the improvement of recent tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether customers and academics from all around the world to share their experience and research with in-house experts, the massive investment in analysis, growth and manufacturing has advanced the design of all the GIW pump products,supplies and wear-resistant components.
The future “There is a transparent trend toward larger 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 business was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their services for larger and better production and demanding the identical of the gear that keeps their manufacturing moving. While these larger pumps demand more power, they also enable for greater manufacturing with much less downtime required for maintenance. Overall, the effectivity improves when in comparison with the identical output from a larger amount of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with larger services, bigger pipelines, and increased manufacturing, all of which continue to pattern greater yr after year. Other clients and industries have also shown an curiosity on this dimension, and it will be no surprise in any respect to see more of these pumps built in the near future for comparable functions.”
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