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 in the oil sands trade.
When it involves pumping slurry, there can be only a few purposes which are more challenging than the hydro-transport of industrial quality slurries in oil sands production. Not solely do the pumps need to deal with the highly aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they’re also expected to function in a variety of the harshest environments on the planet.
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 industry and the most recent in a line of powerful high-pressure pumps provided by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial vary of business sectors, ranging from meals and beverage to mining. What is common to all, is that the pumps used should be succesful of transport liquids containing particles and solids of varying 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 crucial that the slurry passes by way of the pump with the minimal quantity of damage to the pump casing, impeller, shaft and sealing mechanism. Furthermore, the pump should be capable of delivering excessive flows and able to face up to harsh operating environments.
Alberta 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 removal of bituminous ore which is transported to a crushing plant. The crushed ore is then mixed with warm water to type a dense slurry that can be transported within the pipeline in the direction of extraction, where the bitumen is separated from the sand and rock. After extraction, the remaining solids (or tailings) are often transported via different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require extensive use of slurry and water transportation pumps capable of dealing with vast portions of liquids at high pressures and excessive temp- eratures. Drawing on its long experience of designing slurry pumps for mining, GIW has custom-engineered slurry pumps that mix superior materials, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the latest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW business development supervisor, explains more: “Our shopper wanted the next 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 stress of 4000 kPa. The pump additionally wanted to have the flexibility to move 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 shopper was targeting a maintenance interval (operational time between planned maintenance) of round 3,000 hours. เกจวัดแรงดันลม had expressed an curiosity in maximising the maintenance intervals and based mostly on initial wear indications, they are at present hoping to attain around 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The instant 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 measurement for the process, but the prime size can still often reach 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 in the business. Wear and erosion are facts of life, and GIW has many years of experience within the design of slurry pumps and the event of supplies to assist prolong the service life of those crucial parts 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 well-liked measurement 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 larger strain capabilities and the capability of handling bigger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which offered the most effective answer for maximised production.”
The TBC sequence The building style of GIW’s TBC pump vary options large, ribbed plates held together 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 1990s, the TBC pump collection has grown into a totally 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 together in booster stations to construct strain as excessive as 750 psi (5171 kPa) to account for the pipe losses encountered over such long distances. The sturdy development of the TBC pump is nicely suited to do the job, while guaranteeing most availability of the equipment underneath closely abrasive wear.
Capable of delivering stress as much as 37 bar and flows of greater than 18,200m³/h and temperatures as much as 120o C, the TBC range is a horizontal, end suction centrifugal pump that offers maximum 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 facet plates without the use of heavy and unwieldy double-wall construction.
The TBC-92 combines the most effective parts of earlier TBC fashions, together with the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also called 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 onerous 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 embrace a slurry diverter that dramatically will increase suction liner life by reducing particle recirculation between the impeller and the liner. The massive diameter impeller allows the pump to run at slower speeds in order that wear life is enhanced. The lower speed also provides the pump the power to function over a wider vary of flows in order to accommodate fluctuating circulate circumstances.
To make maintenance easier, the pump is fitted with a particular two-piece suction plate design which helps to reduce back software time and supply safer lifting. Customers receive pump-specific lifting units to facilitate the protected elimination and set up of wear and tear comp- onents. The pump also contains a longlasting suction liner that might 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 at all working Canadian oil sands vegetation for hydrotransport applications. The TBC-92 has been designed to sort out heavy-duty slurry transport whereas offering a low whole value of ownership. Minimal labour and upkeep time assist to maximise manufacturing and revenue.
“This new pump incorporates the lessons discovered from working in the oil sands over many years, and features our newest hydraulic and wear applied sciences,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because that is the heaviest TBC pump we have ever designed, explicit consideration was given to maintainability, in addition to material choice and development of the pressure-containing parts.”
That GIW has established itself as a major pressure in pumping solutions for the oil sands trade is far from stunning on circumstance that it has been creating pumping applied sciences and wear resistant materials in the world mining trade because 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 adding water to the excavated materials it turns into 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 is transported, plus there’s the additional benefit of eradicating the use of vehicles.
GIW has estimated that the worth of moving oil sand in this method can reduce prices by US$2 a barrel, and it is way more environmentally pleasant. These pumps additionally play a significant role in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW supplies 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 basic to the development of these merchandise. 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 include a number of slurry test beds on the campus, along with a hydraulics laboratory that is devoted to pump performance testing.
These activities are central to the company’s pump improvement programmes. If companies are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see the place the issue lies and offer recommendation for remedial action. Experience does indicate that in many circumstances the issue lies not with the pump however, but within the interaction between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from clients about appli- cations helps within the growth of latest instruments and pump designs. By bringing to- gether clients and lecturers from all over the world to share their experience and research with in-house experts, the large investment in analysis, growth and manufacturing has superior the design of the entire GIW pump merchandise,supplies and wear-resistant components.
The future “There is a transparent development toward larger pumps in mining and dredging and oil sands are no exception,” comments 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 facilities for larger and better manufacturing and demanding the identical of the equipment that retains their manufacturing shifting. While these bigger pumps demand extra power, they also allow for greater production with less downtime required for maintenance. Overall, the efficiency improves when in comparability with the same output from a larger quantity of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with larger facilities, larger pipelines, and increased production, all of which continue to trend larger yr after year. Other prospects and industries have additionally proven an curiosity on this dimension, and it might be no surprise in any respect to see extra of those pumps built in the near future for similar purposes.”
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