Celeros Flow Technology has injected new life into a heritage pump for a Canadian heavy oil restoration customer, enabling them to extend manufacturing. The pump – a Mather & Platt BB5 – was more than 40 years old and had been subject to quite a few post-installation alterations.
Wacky are extremely viscous and require the injection of excessive strain, excessive temperature steam to enhance fluidity and permit the oil to be pumped to the floor. In order to spice up extraction on this project, the shopper needed to increase water temperatures from 90° C to 140° C. However, there have been issues that the present pump may not be in a position to deliver this requirement. Nozzle hundreds had been a specific concern. They turned to Celeros Flow Technology model ClydeUnion Pumps, their preferred supplier of some 20 years, for assistance.
Mather & Platt is certainly one of several heritage pump manufacturers for which Celeros Flow Technology offers full lifecycle support1. Their aftermarket engineering team undertook a thorough examination of the quadragenarian Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) boiler feed water pump used in the heavy oil extraction process. The investigation revealed that the pump had suffered a quantity of seal failures over time that had damaged the stuffing box and affected operational effectivity. There had also been no maintenance interventions for decades – but the pump had never really failed.
Says Mike Golds, Global Upgrade and Rerate Programme Manager for ClydeUnion Pumps: “It is testomony to the quality of the unique pump that it had continued to function in such harsh situations and with no regular upkeep over such a long time period. More importantly, it gave us confidence that a thorough overhaul could achieve the specified improvement in performance, saving the customer the price and lost manufacturing time that can be related to sourcing and putting in a model new unit.”
Celeros Flow Technology overhauled the SAGD pump and performed a mechanical seal upgrade and Plan 23 seal flush to optimize pump efficiency. In addition, finite factor analysis was undertaken to substantiate that the nozzle loads would face up to the specified temperature increase. As a result, the pump is now able to delivering steam at the higher temperatures required. The seal upgrades ensure it meets the newest specifications.
Concludes Mike Golds: “We are really happy with the outcome of the SAGD pump improve. It has not solely achieved the specified production increase for the shopper, but also supplied a more sustainable and cost-effective solution than total pump alternative. Using trendy engineering and analysis, we now have been in a position to give the prevailing pump a model new lease of life and guarantee it’s going to proceed to carry out well for a lot of more years.”
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