KSB’s slurry dealing with success in oil sands

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 comes to pumping slurry, there can be only a few purposes which are tougher than the hydro-transport of professional quality slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not only do the pumps need to cope with the highly aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re also expected to function in a number 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, 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 obtainable in the oil sands trade and the most recent in a line of powerful high-pressure pumps offered by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a considerable range of industry sectors, ranging from meals and beverage to mining. What is frequent to all, is that the pumps used must be in a position to transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands production, the most important problem is to accommodate high density slurry and extremely abrasive grits.
It is essential that the slurry passes via the pump with the minimum quantity of wear to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump must be able to delivering high flows and capable of stand up to harsh operating environments.
Alberta in Canada has intensive oil reserves and these are in the type of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is difficult, 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 in the pipeline in path 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 in depth use of slurry and water transportation pumps capable of handling vast quantities of liquids at excessive pressures and high temp- eratures. Drawing on its long expertise of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that combine advanced materials, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the most recent of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW enterprise improvement manager, explains extra: “Our client wanted a better capacity pump which was able to 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 find a way to pass 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 excess of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the client was targeting a upkeep interval (operational time between deliberate maintenance) of round 3,000 hours. They had expressed an curiosity in maximising the upkeep intervals and based mostly on initial wear indications, they’re presently hoping to achieve round 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The immediate utility for the primary batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service the place they’re used to move bitu- minous ore from the crusher to the extraction plant. The liquid pumped is a mixture of water, bitumen, sand, and huge rocks. Screens are in place to maintain these rocks to a manageable dimension for the process, however the prime measurement can still typically 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 facts of life, and GIW has many years of experience in the design of slurry pumps and the development of supplies to help prolong the service life of those critical components to match the planned upkeep cycles in 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 almost 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s software required a pump with larger stress capabilities and the potential of dealing with larger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which offered one of the best solution for maximised production.”
The TBC series The building fashion of GIW’s TBC pump range options giant, ribbed plates held along with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and most put on performance. First developed for dredge service, then later launched into the oil sands within the Nineteen Nineties, the TBC pump sequence has grown into a fully 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 pressure as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The sturdy development of the TBC pump is well suited to do the job, while ensuring maximum availability of the gear beneath closely abrasive wear.
Capable of delivering pressure as much as 37 bar and flows of more than 18,200m³/h and temperatures as much as 120o C, the TBC vary is a horizontal, finish suction centrifugal pump that gives maximum resistance to put on. Simple to keep up, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress masses away from the damage resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing side plates without the use of heavy and unwieldy double-wall construction.
The TBC-92 combines the best components of earlier TBC models, 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 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 embody a slurry diverter that dramatically will increase suction liner life by reducing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The large diameter impeller permits the pump to run at slower speeds so that put on life is enhanced. The lower velocity additionally provides the pump the ability to operate over a wider range of flows so as to accommodate fluctuating circulate circumstances.
To make maintenance simpler, the pump is fitted with a special two-piece suction plate design which helps to scale back tool time and supply safer lifting. Customers obtain pump-specific lifting units to facilitate the protected removal and set up of damage comp- onents. The pump also includes a longlasting suction liner that could be adjusted while not 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 in any respect working Canadian oil sands plants for hydrotransport purposes. The TBC-92 has been designed to sort out heavy-duty slurry transport while offering a low total value of ownership. เกจ์วัดแรงดันลม and upkeep time assist to maximise production and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the teachings discovered from operating in the oil sands over a few years, and options our newest hydraulic and wear applied sciences,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because this is the heaviest TBC pump we now have ever designed, particular consideration was given to maintainability, as properly as materials selection and building of the pressure-containing components.”
That GIW has established itself as a major drive in pumping options for the oil sands industry is much from shocking given that it has been creating pumping technologies and wear resistant supplies within the world mining business because the 1940s.
These pumps have had a substantial impression on the finest way that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By adding water to the excavated materials it becomes 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 is transported, plus there is the extra advantage of eradicating using vehicles.
GIW has estimated that the worth of moving oil sand on this way can reduce prices by US$2 a barrel, and it is far more environmentally friendly. These pumps also play a major role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides pumps used within the extraction course of and other 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 products. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from clients over a few years for testing hydraulics and supplies each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development amenities embrace multiple slurry take a look at beds on the campus, together with a hydraulics laboratory that is dedicated to pump efficiency testing.
These activities are central to the company’s pump improvement programmes. If corporations are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the issue lies and supply advice for remedial action. Experience does indicate that in many instances the problem lies not with the pump however, but in the interplay between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from prospects about appli- cations helps in the improvement of recent instruments and pump designs. By bringing to- gether customers and teachers from all round the world to share their expertise and research with in-house experts, the huge investment in research, growth and manufacturing has advanced the design of all the GIW pump merchandise,supplies and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a transparent trend toward bigger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands are not any exception,” comments Leo Perry, GIW lead product manager. “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 services for greater and better production and demanding the same of the equipment that keeps their manufacturing transferring. While these bigger pumps demand more energy, in addition they permit for greater production with less downtime required for maintenance. Overall, the efficiency improves when in comparability with the identical output from a bigger quantity of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with larger facilities, larger pipelines, and elevated production, all of which proceed to trend higher 12 months after 12 months. Other clients and industries have additionally proven an interest on this measurement, and it would be no shock in any respect to see more of these pumps built in the close to future for related applications.”
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