KSB’s slurry dealing with success in oil sands

Alberta, Canada has the world’s third largest oil reserves in the form of oil sands. Extracting and processing the oil from the sands and bedrock is a challenging process and requires the biggest slurry pump within the oil sands business.
When it involves pumping slurry, there can be only a few purposes which are tougher than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands production. Not solely do the pumps have to cope with the extremely aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re 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, specifically the Tie Bolt Construction (TBC-92). Named after its ninety two in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the largest and heaviest slurry pump obtainable within the oil sands business and the most recent in a line of powerful high-pressure pumps supplied by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial range of trade sectors, ranging from meals and beverage to mining. What is frequent to all, is that the pumps used must be succesful of 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 highly abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes through the pump with the minimum amount of damage to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump should be able to delivering high flows and in a place to face up to harsh operating environments.
เกจวัดถังแก๊ส in Canada has in depth 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 elimination of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. The crushed ore is then blended 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 often transported via completely different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require extensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to dealing with huge portions of liquids at high pressures and high temp- eratures. Drawing on its long expertise of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that mix superior supplies, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the newest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW enterprise improvement supervisor, explains more: “Our client wanted the next 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 pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump also wanted to have the ability to move rocks of roughly a hundred thirty mm in diameter with a total passage size requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in extra of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the client was concentrating on a upkeep interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of round 3,000 hours. They had expressed an interest in maximising the maintenance intervals and based on preliminary wear indications, they’re at present hoping to attain round 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The quick utility for the first batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service the place 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 huge rocks. Screens are in place to keep these rocks to a manageable measurement for the process, however the prime dimension can nonetheless often reach as a lot as one hundred thirty mm in diameter or bigger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from different pumps used within the business. Wear and erosion are facts of life, and GIW has many years of expertise within the design of slurry pumps and the event of supplies to help prolong the service life of those important components 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 popular dimension in mill duties for practically 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s utility required a pump with higher strain capabilities and the capability of dealing with bigger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which provided the best answer for maximised manufacturing.”
The TBC sequence The building fashion of GIW’s TBC pump vary options massive, ribbed plates held along with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and most put on efficiency. First developed for dredge service, then later launched into the oil sands within the Nineteen Nineties, the TBC pump series 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 build pressure as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The strong development of the TBC pump is properly suited to do the job, whereas ensuring maximum availability of the tools beneath 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 range is a horizontal, finish suction centrifugal pump that gives maximum resistance to put on. Simple to take care of, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress loads away from the put on and tear resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing facet plates with out using heavy and unwieldy double-wall development.
The TBC-92 combines the most effective elements of earlier TBC fashions, together with 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 throughout the world of exhausting rock mining.
In whole, 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 decreasing 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 lower velocity also offers the pump the flexibility to operate over a wider vary of flows so as to accommodate fluctuating move situations.
To make upkeep easier, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to reduce back tool time and provide safer lifting. Customers obtain pump-specific lifting units to facilitate the secure removal and set up of wear and tear comp- onents. The pump also includes a longlasting suction liner that could be adjusted without needing to shut the pump down.
New milestone The commissioning of the TBC-92 marks an necessary milestone for GIW, which now has pumps in service at all operating Canadian oil sands vegetation for hydrotransport applications. The TBC-92 has been designed to tackle heavy-duty slurry transport whereas providing a low total value of ownership. Minimal labour and upkeep time assist to maximise production and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the teachings realized from operating within the oil sands over a few years, and features our newest hydraulic and wear applied sciences,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because this is the heaviest TBC pump we have ever designed, explicit consideration was given to maintainability, in addition to material choice and building of the pressure-containing parts.”
That GIW has established itself as a significant pressure in pumping options for the oil sands business is much from shocking provided that it has been creating pumping applied sciences and put on resistant supplies in the global mining industry since the Nineteen Forties.
These pumps have had a considerable impact on the way that excavated sand, rock and bitumen are transported to the upgrader plant. By including water to the excavated materials it becomes 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 is the additional good factor about removing using trucks.
GIW has estimated that the price of transferring oil sand on this way can minimize costs by US$2 a barrel, and it is much more environmentally friendly. These pumps also play a significant role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides pumps used within the extraction process and other areas of manufacturing (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the character of slurries and the way they behave when being pumped has been fundamental to the event of these merchandise. GIW has been obtaining slurry samples from prospects over many years for testing hydraulics and supplies both for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development services include a number of slurry test beds on the campus, along with a hydraulics laboratory that is dedicated to pump performance testing.
These activities are central to the company’s pump growth programmes. If companies are experiencing problems the GIW R&D personnel can see where the issue lies and provide advice for remedial motion. Experience does point out that in plenty of instances the problem lies not with the pump nevertheless, but within the interaction between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from customers about appli- cations helps in the improvement of recent tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether clients and academics from everywhere in the world to share their experience and research with in-house specialists, the massive funding in research, development and manufacturing has advanced the design of the entire GIW pump merchandise,supplies and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a clear trend toward larger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands are not any exception,” feedback Leo Perry, GIW lead product supervisor. “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 amenities for greater and better manufacturing and demanding the identical of the tools that retains their production transferring. While these larger pumps demand extra energy, in addition they enable for larger manufacturing with less downtime required for upkeep. Overall, the efficiency 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, larger pipelines, and increased production, all of which proceed to trend greater yr after 12 months. Other customers and industries have additionally shown an interest in this dimension, and it would be no surprise in any respect to see more of these pumps built in the close to future for comparable applications.”
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