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 biggest slurry pump within the oil sands industry.
When it involves pumping slurry, there can be only a few functions which would possibly be tougher than the hydro-transport of professional quality slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not solely do the pumps have to deal 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 firm, 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 ninety two in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the biggest and heaviest slurry pump out there within the oil sands trade and the newest in a line of highly effective high-pressure pumps offered by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial vary of industry sectors, ranging from meals and beverage to mining. What is widespread to all, is that the pumps used must have the flexibility 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 excessive density slurry and extremely abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes by way of the pump with the minimum amount of wear to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump must be capable of delivering excessive flows and able to face up to 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 removal 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 can be transported in 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 different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require in depth use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to dealing with vast quantities 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 superior supplies, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the newest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW business improvement manager, explains more: “Our consumer wanted a better 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 strain of 4000 kPa. The pump additionally needed to have the ability to cross rocks of roughly a hundred thirty mm in diameter with a complete passage size requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in excess of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the client was concentrating on a upkeep interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of round three,000 hours. They had expressed an curiosity in maximising the maintenance intervals and based on preliminary put on indications, they are currently hoping to realize round 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The quick 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 mixture of water, bitumen, sand, and enormous rocks. Screens are in place to keep these rocks to a manageable size for the process, however the high dimension can nonetheless usually 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 in the industry. Wear and erosion are facts of life, and GIW has many years of expertise in the design of slurry pumps and the development of materials to assist lengthen the service life of those critical parts to match the deliberate 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 measurement in mill duties for almost 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s application required a pump with larger strain capabilities and the capability of handling larger rocks so we responded with the event of the TBC-92 which supplied the most effective resolution for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC series The construction style of GIW’s TBC pump vary options large, 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 1990s, the TBC pump series has grown into a totally developed range of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and onerous rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport applications.
The pumps are sometimes grouped together in booster stations to build stress as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The robust development of the TBC pump is nicely suited to do the job, while guaranteeing maximum availability of the gear underneath heavily abrasive put on.
Capable of delivering pressure up to 37 bar and flows of greater than 18,200m³/h and temperatures as much as 120o C, the TBC vary is a horizontal, finish suction centrifugal pump that offers most resistance to put on. Simple to take care of, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress masses away from the wear resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing facet plates with out the use of heavy and unwieldy double-wall building.
The TBC-92 combines the best components of earlier TBC models, including the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also referred to as the Super Pump. The pump additionally incorporates features from GIW’s MDX product line, which is used in heavy-duty mining circuits all through the world of hard 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 features of the pump include a slurry diverter that dramatically will increase suction liner life by reducing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The giant diameter impeller allows the pump to run at slower speeds in order that wear life is enhanced. The decrease pace also gives the pump the power to function over a wider vary of flows in order to accommodate fluctuating flow circumstances.
To make upkeep easier, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to cut back tool time and provide safer lifting. Customers obtain pump-specific lifting units to facilitate the protected removal and installation of put on and tear comp- onents. The pump also includes a longlasting suction liner that might be adjusted without having to close the pump down.
Ironclad of the TBC-92 marks an necessary milestone for GIW, which now has pumps in service at all operating Canadian oil sands plants for hydrotransport purposes. The TBC-92 has been designed to tackle heavy-duty slurry transport while offering a low complete price of ownership. Minimal labour and maintenance time help to maximise manufacturing and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the teachings realized from operating in the oil sands over a few years, and features our newest hydraulic and wear technologies,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because that is the heaviest TBC pump we have ever designed, explicit consideration was given to maintainability, in addition to materials selection and construction of the pressure-containing components.”
That GIW has established itself as a significant pressure in pumping solutions for the oil sands business is much from stunning provided that it has been growing pumping technologies and wear resistant supplies within the international mining business for the explanation that Nineteen Forties.
These pumps have had a substantial influence on the method in which that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By including water to the excavated material it turns into extremely 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 could be the additional benefit of removing using vehicles.
GIW has estimated that the cost of moving oil sand on this way can cut costs by US$2 a barrel, and it’s way more environmentally friendly. These pumps additionally play a major function in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW supplies pumps used in the extraction course of and other areas of production (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the character of slurries and the way they behave when being pumped has been elementary to the event of those products. GIW has been acquiring slurry samples from customers over a few years for testing hydraulics and supplies both for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development facilities embody multiple slurry take a look at beds on the campus, together with a hydraulics laboratory that’s devoted to pump efficiency testing.
These actions are central to the company’s pump development programmes. If companies are experiencing problems the GIW R&D personnel can see where the problem lies and provide advice for remedial motion. Experience does point out that in plenty of cases the issue lies not with the pump nevertheless, however within the interplay between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from prospects about appli- cations helps in the growth of recent tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether customers and lecturers from all around the world to share their expertise and analysis with in-house specialists, the massive investment in analysis, development and manufacturing has superior the design of all the GIW pump products,materials and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a clear pattern toward larger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands are no exception,” feedback Leo Perry, GIW lead product supervisor. “The first TBC pump within the oil sands trade was the TBC-46 (46 in being the diameter of the impeller). Customers are designing their facilities for larger and better production and demanding the same of the equipment that keeps their manufacturing transferring. While these bigger pumps demand extra power, additionally they permit for larger production with much less downtime required for maintenance. Overall, the efficiency improves when compared to the same output from a bigger 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 trend larger yr after yr. Other prospects and industries have additionally proven an interest on this measurement, and it would be no surprise at all to see more of these pumps constructed in the near future for similar applications.”
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