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 most important slurry pump in the oil sands industry.
When it comes to pumping slurry, there could be only a few applications that are tougher than the hydro-transport of heavy-duty slurries in oil sands manufacturing. Not only do the pumps need to cope with the highly aggressive nature of the fluid being pumped, they are also anticipated to function 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 92 in (2337 mm) impeller, the TBC-92 is the biggest and heaviest slurry pump out there within the oil sands trade and the latest in a line of highly effective high-pressure pumps supplied by GIW.
Slurry transportation Slurry transport covers a substantial range of trade sectors, starting from food and beverage to mining. What is frequent to all, is that the pumps used must have the power to transport liquids containing particles and solids of various sizes and viscosities. In mining, dredging and oil sands manufacturing, the most important challenge is to accommodate excessive density slurry and extremely abrasive grits.
It is crucial 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 in a place to stand up to harsh working environments.
Alberta in Canada has extensive 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 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 in the pipeline in the direction of extraction, the place the bitumen is separated from the sand and rock. After extraction, the remaining solids (or tailings) are sometimes transported by way of completely different pumps to settling ponds.
The processes require in depth use of slurry and water transportation pumps capable of dealing with huge 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 mix superior materials, hydraulics and patented mechanical designs, the newest of which is the TBC-92.
Meeting challenges Mollie Timmerman, GIW business growth supervisor, explains extra: “Our shopper needed 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 pressure of 4000 kPa. The pump also wanted to find a way to move rocks of roughly a hundred thirty mm in diameter with a complete passage dimension requirement of 10 in (or 254 mm) and handle slurry densities in extra of 1.5 SG.
In addition, the client was targeting a maintenance interval (operational time between deliberate maintenance) of around 3,000 hours. They had expressed an interest in maximising the maintenance intervals and based on preliminary wear indications, they’re currently hoping to achieve around 6,000 hours between pump overhauls (i.e. 6–8 months).”
The instant utility for the primary batch of GIW’s TBC-92 pumps in Alberta is in hydro-transport service the place they are used to move 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 dimension for the method, but the top measurement can still often reach as a lot as one hundred thirty mm in diameter or larger.
The abrasive nature of the slurry is what separates a slurry pump from different pumps used in the trade. Wear and erosion are information of life, and GIW has a long time of expertise within the design of slurry pumps and the event of materials to assist lengthen the service life of those crucial elements to match the deliberate upkeep cycles in the plant.
“GIW already had a pump capable of the output requirement, this being the MDX-750, which has been a preferred dimension in mill duties for practically 10 years through- out Central and South America,” explains Mollie Timmerman. ”However, the customer’s application required a pump with higher stress capabilities and the capability of handling larger rocks so we responded with the development of the TBC-92 which provided one of the best answer for maximised production.”
The TBC series The construction style of GIW’s TBC pump vary features large, ribbed plates held along with tie bolts for very high-pressure service and maximum wear efficiency. First developed for dredge service, then later launched into the oil sands within the Nineties, the TBC pump collection has grown into a fully developed vary of pumps serving the oil sands, phosphate, dredging and exhausting rock mining industries for tailings and hydrotransport purposes.
The pumps are often 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 strong building of the TBC pump is nicely suited to do the job, while guaranteeing maximum availability of the tools under heavily abrasive put on.
Capable of delivering stress as a lot as 37 bar and flows of more than 18,200m³/h and temperatures as much as 120o C, the TBC vary is a horizontal, end suction centrifugal pump that gives maximum resistance to wear. 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 without using heavy and unwieldy double-wall building.
The TBC-92 combines the most effective components of earlier TBC models, including the TBC-84 oil sands tailing pump, also referred to as the Super Pump. The pump also incorporates options 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 equivalent to a fully-loaded Airbus A321 aeroplane. The casing alone weighs 34,000 lbs (15,500 kg). Key options of the pump include a slurry diverter that dramatically increases 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 so that wear life is enhanced. The lower velocity additionally offers the pump the ability to operate over a wider vary of flows so as to accommodate fluctuating flow circumstances.
To make maintenance easier, the pump is fitted with a special two-piece suction plate design which helps to scale back device time and provide safer lifting. Customers obtain pump-specific lifting devices to facilitate the secure removal and installation of wear comp- onents. The pump also includes a longlasting suction liner that may be adjusted without needing to close 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 working Canadian oil sands crops for hydrotransport purposes. The TBC-92 has been designed to deal with heavy-duty slurry transport whereas offering a low whole value of possession. Minimal labour and upkeep time help to maximise manufacturing and profit.
“This new pump incorporates the teachings learned from operating in the oil sands over a few years, and features our newest hydraulic and wear applied sciences,” says Mollie Timmerman. “Because that is the heaviest TBC pump we’ve ever designed, specific consideration was given to maintainability, as nicely as material selection and development of the pressure-containing components.”
That GIW has established itself as a significant force in pumping options for the oil sands business is much from stunning on condition that it has been growing pumping applied sciences and put on resistant supplies within the international mining industry for the reason that 1940s.
xp2i have had a substantial influence 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 environment friendly 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 is the extra advantage of eradicating using trucks.
GIW has estimated that the price of moving oil sand in this method can reduce prices by US$2 a barrel, and it is far more environmentally friendly. These pumps also play a serious function in transporting the coarse tailings to the tailings ponds. GIW provides pumps used in 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 development of these products. GIW has been acquiring slurry samples from customers over a few years for testing hydraulics and materials each for pumps and pipelines. Research & Development services embody a quantity of slurry take a look at beds on the campus, together with a hydraulics laboratory that’s dedicated to pump efficiency testing.
These actions are central to the company’s pump growth programmes. If companies are experiencing issues the GIW R&D personnel can see where the issue lies and provide advice for remedial motion. Experience does indicate that in plenty of circumstances the issue lies not with the pump nonetheless, however in the interplay between the pipeline and the pump.
Feedback from clients about appli- cations helps in the development of recent tools and pump designs. By bringing to- gether prospects and academics from everywhere in the world to share their experience and analysis with in-house specialists, the huge investment in research, development and manufacturing has superior the design of all the GIW pump merchandise,supplies and wear-resistant elements.
The future “There is a transparent pattern toward larger 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 larger and better manufacturing and demanding the identical of the gear that retains their manufacturing transferring. While these larger pumps demand more energy, they also allow for higher manufacturing with less downtime required for upkeep. Overall, the effectivity improves when compared to the same output from a larger quantity of smaller pumps. “
In conclusion, he says: “Larger pumps go hand-in-hand with larger services, bigger pipelines, and increased manufacturing, all of which proceed to development greater yr after year. Other prospects and industries have additionally proven an curiosity on this measurement, and it might be no shock at all to see more of these pumps constructed within the close to future for related applications.”
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