A salt extraction operation had to move rapidly from an onshore to an offshore website supplied by 5 km of pipework. The firm turned to move control partner Celeros to help meet the distinctive circumstances encountered on the new salt nicely.
Overview of the 2 new water injection pumps for single and parallel operation, following installation and commissioning on the Frisia Zout BV web site.
A new salt extraction plant off the north coast of Holland has been brought on-line forward of schedule, stopping a potential halt in production when the existing onshore nicely developed issues. Frisia Zout BV, part of K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH, was able to overcome the time and technical challenges of accelerating the challenge by working in partnership with Celeros Flow Technology (Celeros FT).
The bulk of the salt produced by Frisia Zout BV goes loose to a 40,000-tonne storage facility for delivery in bulk to industry. The remainder is packed in smaller quantities for use in meals manufacturing or made into cubes for water purification.
The salt is extracted underneath licence from the Dutch government. The present borehole licence
allowed K+S to extract salt from underground on the mainland. Due to regulatory adjustments, the brand new licence would solely allow extraction from subsea sources off the coast. Consequently, a brand new borehole and related plant was required at the Frisia Zout BV web site.
New challenges
K+S began planning for a model new pump constructing in 2017, and construction began in April 2020 with the purpose of bringing it onstream before the prevailing extraction licence expired on the finish of 2021. However, unforeseen difficulties arose with the present onshore properly, which meant that production would stop before anticipated. To bridge the gap, Frisia Zout BV began bringing in salt water by tanker, however this was an costly various. As a end result, it grew to become imperative to bring the new offshore well onstream as quickly as possible.
Time pressures weren’t the one challenges the corporate faced. Due to the natural geology, the extraction route to the new offshore resource was not a straight bore: it modified path twice earlier than reaching the salt deposits. In truth, the new plant is fed by one of the deepest wells in the world and has 5 km of pipework past the water injection pumps. As a end result, the method water has to be pumped in at excessive stress (250 barg) and at a excessive circulate price (450 m3/h) to extract the amount of salt required, making the selection of pumps important to success.
Total answer
Frisia Zout BV has an extended and established relationship with Celeros FT via the ClydeUnion Pumps brand, based mostly not solely on the high quality of ITS OEM pumps but also on its capability to respond shortly to any operational points. The firm turned to its trusted circulate management companion once once more for help in meeting the distinctive circumstances encountered at the new salt nicely.
Celeros FT model ClydeUnion Pumps assessed the flow requirements for the water injection course of on the new plant and verified that CUP-BB3 pumps might be made to fulfill requirements. The pumps have been specified with Duplex stainless-steel casings as a end result of they might be working in a salt-laden surroundings. Celeros FT manufactured, provided, installed and commissioned the mission-critical pumps for injecting water into the new offshore salt cavern, assembly unusual requirements for top stress and high circulate charges. In addition, they supported Frisia Zout BV in bringing an older pump again into service as a spare: assessing it and upgrading the casing to ensure it met the model new responsibility requirements.
Jouk Riemer, challenge supervisor for Frisia Zout BV, explained: “We have used CUP-BB3 pumps prior to now and located that their multistage centrifugal design gives better performance, compared to plunger pumps, for this application. We wanted to make use of them again for the new project. The Celeros FT group responded to the challenges magnificently, utilizing their engineering experience to establish the best answer to satisfy the strain and circulate charges we required, delivering the pump skids to meet the new construction schedule and helping us maintain the challenge on track.”
Future assured
The new salt extraction plant came on-line in December 2020. Its CUP-BB3 pumps meet the excessive strain and move charges required for the appliance and may run in parallel, which has improved productiveness. The availability of a spare pump provides additional confidence that manufacturing downtime might be minimal. The company’s ability to fulfill the accelerated project deadline is especially impressive when you consider that the Covid-19 pandemic was already affecting supplies of materials and components. The Celeros FT team labored hard to guarantee that this did not have any impact on their buyer.
Celeros FT additionally supplied specialist engineering experience all through the set up and commissioning part and will proceed to ensure the pumps operate satisfactorily throughout the plant’s 15-year lifespan, although the pump building could also be required to serve more than one nicely in future as demand for K+S high purity salt continues to develop. Easy alternative of damage components and ongoing service help from Celeros FT will ensure that the BB3 pumps continue to fulfill operational parameters all through the extraction plant’s lifetime.
Riemer mentioned: “The mixture of high quality OEM gear and sensible engineering skills offered by Celeros Flow Technology was instrumental in delivering this project forward of time. I’m convinced it will have taken so much longer to get what we required from another pump producer. differential pressure gauge ราคา ’s responsiveness was essential in meeting our revised deadline, reducing prices and keeping extraction at this website viable.” Riemer concluded: “This is the primary offshore extraction properly we have developed but it has been a largely positive experience because of Celeros Flow Technology. They introduced invaluable engineering expertise and specialist pump information to this challenge and are a basic part of its success.”
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