KSB’s slurry handling success in oil sands

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 challenging course of and requires the most important slurry pump in the oil sands industry.
When it involves pumping slurry, there can be very few purposes which would possibly be tougher than the hydro-transport of industrial quality slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not only do the pumps need to deal with the extremely aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re additionally expected to function in a number 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 92 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 provided 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 ready to transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands production, the biggest challenge is to accommodate excessive density slurry and extremely abrasive grits.
It is important that the slurry passes via the pump with the minimal amount of damage to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump have to be capable of delivering high flows and able to stand up to harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has in depth oil reserves and these are in 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 combined with warm water to form a dense slurry that can be transported within the pipeline towards extraction, the place 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 intensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps able to handling huge portions of liquids at excessive pressures and high temp- eratures. Drawing on pressure gauge 10 bar of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that combine advanced materials, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the latest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW business improvement manager, explains more: “Our consumer wanted the next capacity pump which was capable of 10,000–11,000 m3 per hour of output at practically 40 m of developed head and a most working pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump additionally wanted to have the power to move rocks of roughly one hundred thirty mm in diameter with a total passage measurement requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and deal with slurry densities in extra of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the shopper was focusing on a upkeep interval (operational time between deliberate maintenance) of round 3,000 hours. They had expressed an interest in maximising the upkeep intervals and based mostly on initial put on indications, they are currently hoping to realize round 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”

The quick utility for the primary batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service where they’re used to maneuver bitu- minous ore from the crusher to the extraction plant. The liquid pumped is a mix of water, bitumen, sand, and enormous rocks. Screens are in place to maintain these rocks to a manageable size for the process, but the high size can still typically reach as much as 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 information of life, and GIW has a long time of experience in the design of slurry pumps and the event of supplies to help prolong the service life of these crucial elements to match the deliberate maintenance cycles within 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 utility required a pump with higher strain capabilities and the aptitude of dealing with bigger rocks so we responded with the event of the TBC-92 which provided the best solution for maximised manufacturing.”

The TBC sequence The building fashion 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 within the Nineteen Nineties, the TBC pump collection has grown into a fully developed range of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and onerous rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport purposes.
The pumps are sometimes grouped together in booster stations to construct strain as high as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such lengthy distances. The strong development of the TBC pump is well suited to do the job, while guaranteeing maximum availability of the equipment beneath closely abrasive put on.
Capable of delivering strain as a lot as 37 bar and flows of more than 18,200m³/h and temperatures up to 120o C, the TBC range is a horizontal, finish suction centrifugal pump that gives most resistance to put on. Simple to maintain, the pump’s tie-bolt design transfers stress masses away from the wear resistant white iron casing to the non- bearing side plates without the utilization of heavy and unwieldy double-wall development.
pressure gauge -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 additionally incorporates options from GIW’s MDX product line, which is used in heavy-duty mining circuits all through the world of hard 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 features of the pump embrace a slurry diverter that dramatically will increase suction liner life by decreasing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The giant diameter impeller permits the pump to run at slower speeds in order that put on life is enhanced. The decrease speed also provides the pump the power to function over a wider vary of flows to be able to accommodate fluctuating circulate situations.
To make maintenance simpler, the pump is fitted with a special two-piece suction plate design which helps to reduce device time and supply safer lifting. Customers obtain pump-specific lifting devices to facilitate the secure elimination and set up of damage comp- onents. The pump additionally features a longlasting suction liner that could 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 plants for hydrotransport functions. The TBC-92 has been designed to sort out heavy-duty slurry transport while providing a low whole cost of possession. Minimal labour and maintenance time assist to maximise production and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the teachings realized from working in the oil sands over a few years, and options our newest hydraulic and put on applied sciences,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because that is the heaviest TBC pump we have ever designed, explicit consideration was given to maintainability, as properly as material choice and building of the pressure-containing elements.”

That GIW has established itself as a major force in pumping options for the oil sands trade is far from stunning on circumstance that it has been developing pumping technologies and put on resistant supplies in the international mining industry since the Forties.
These pumps have had a substantial impact on the way 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 is transported, plus there’s the extra advantage of removing the utilization of trucks.
GIW has estimated that the value of transferring oil sand in this method can minimize costs by US$2 a barrel, and it is much more environmentally pleasant. These pumps additionally play a major role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides pumps used in the extraction course of and other areas of production (HVF, MDX, LSA).
Understanding slurries Understanding the nature of slurries and how they behave when being pumped has been elementary to the event of those products. GIW has been acquiring slurry samples from prospects over many years for testing hydraulics and supplies each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development amenities include multiple slurry take a look at beds on the campus, together with a hydraulics laboratory that is devoted to pump performance testing.
These activities are central to the company’s pump improvement programmes. If firms are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the issue lies and offer advice for remedial motion. Experience does point out that in many circumstances the issue lies not with the pump nevertheless, but in the interaction between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from prospects about appli- cations helps within the development of recent tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether prospects and teachers from everywhere in the world to share their experience and analysis with in-house experts, the large funding in analysis, improvement and manufacturing has superior the design of all of the GIW pump merchandise,supplies and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a clear development toward larger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands aren’t any exception,” feedback Leo Perry, GIW lead product supervisor. “The first TBC pump in 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 tools that keeps their production transferring. While these larger pumps demand extra power, they also enable for larger production with much less downtime required for upkeep. Overall, the effectivity 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 amenities, larger pipelines, and increased manufacturing, all of which proceed to pattern larger yr after yr. Other prospects and industries have additionally proven an curiosity in this size, and it will be no shock at all to see more of those pumps built in the near future for similar functions.”

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