A salt extraction operation had to move quickly from an onshore to an offshore website provided by 5 km of pipework. The firm turned to circulate management companion Celeros to help meet the unique 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 site.
A new salt extraction plant off the north coast of Holland has been brought online forward of schedule, preventing a potential halt in manufacturing when the prevailing onshore well developed issues. Frisia Zout BV, part of K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH, was capable of overcome the time and technical challenges of accelerating the project by working in partnership with Celeros Flow Technology (Celeros FT).
The bulk of the salt produced by Frisia Zout BV goes unfastened to a forty,000-tonne storage facility for delivery in bulk to trade. The remainder is packed in smaller quantities for use in food 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 changes, the model new licence would solely allow extraction from subsea sources off the coast. Consequently, a model new borehole and related plant was required at the Frisia Zout BV site.
New challenges
K+S began planning for a new pump building in 2017, and development started in April 2020 with the purpose of bringing it onstream earlier than the existing extraction licence expired at the end of 2021. However, unforeseen difficulties arose with the prevailing onshore well, which meant that manufacturing would stop sooner than anticipated. To bridge the hole, Frisia Zout BV began bringing in salt water by tanker, but this was an expensive alternative. As a end result, it became imperative to bring the new offshore well onstream as soon as potential.
Time pressures weren’t the one challenges the corporate faced. Due to the pure geology, the extraction route to the brand new offshore useful resource was not a straight bore: it modified direction twice before reaching the salt deposits. In truth, the brand new plant is fed by one of the deepest wells on the planet and has 5 km of pipework past the water injection pumps. As a end result, the method water needs to be pumped in at excessive pressure (250 barg) and at a high circulate price (450 m3/h) to extract the amount of salt required, making the selection of pumps crucial to success.
Total resolution
Frisia Zout BV has a protracted and established relationship with Celeros FT via the ClydeUnion Pumps model, based not solely on the prime quality of ITS OEM pumps but in addition on its capacity to respond quickly to any operational points. The firm turned to its trusted circulate management associate as quickly as again for assist in assembly the distinctive circumstances encountered on the new salt well.
Celeros FT brand ClydeUnion Pumps assessed the move requirements for the water injection course of at the new plant and verified that CUP-BB3 pumps could be made to satisfy requirements. The pumps have been specified with Duplex stainless-steel casings as a end result of they would be operating in a salt-laden setting. Celeros FT manufactured, equipped, put in and commissioned the mission-critical pumps for injecting water into the model new offshore salt cavern, assembly uncommon requirements for top pressure and high circulate rates. In addition, they supported Frisia Zout BV in bringing an older pump back into service as a spare: assessing it and upgrading the casing to ensure it met the model new obligation requirements.
Jouk Riemer, venture manager for Frisia Zout BV, explained: “We have used CUP-BB3 pumps prior to now and found that their multistage centrifugal design offers higher efficiency, compared to plunger pumps, for this utility. We wanted to make use of them once more for the brand new challenge. The Celeros FT staff responded to the challenges magnificently, using their engineering expertise to determine the most effective resolution to meet the stress and flow rates we required, delivering the pump skids to satisfy the new construction schedule and serving to us keep the venture on observe.”
Future assured
The new salt extraction plant got here on-line in December 2020. Its CUP-BB3 pumps meet the high strain and flow charges required for the applying and might run in parallel, which has improved productiveness. The availability of a spare pump provides additional confidence that manufacturing downtime shall be minimal. The company’s capability to fulfill the accelerated venture deadline is particularly impressive when you consider that the Covid-19 pandemic was already affecting provides of materials and elements. The Celeros FT staff labored exhausting to make sure that this didn’t have any influence on their customer.
Celeros FT additionally offered specialist engineering experience throughout the installation and commissioning section and can continue to ensure the pumps operate satisfactorily throughout the plant’s 15-year lifespan, though the pump building could additionally be required to serve a couple of well in future as demand for K+S high purity salt continues to grow. Easy alternative of damage parts and ongoing service support from Celeros FT will ensure that the BB3 pumps proceed to fulfill operational parameters throughout the extraction plant’s lifetime.
Now said: “The mixture of high of the range OEM gear and sensible engineering expertise provided by Celeros Flow Technology was instrumental in delivering this challenge ahead of time. I’m satisfied it might have taken so much longer to get what we required from another pump manufacturer. The company’s responsiveness was crucial in assembly our revised deadline, lowering costs and keeping extraction at this website viable.” Riemer concluded: “This is the first offshore extraction nicely we now have developed however it has been a largely positive experience due to Celeros Flow Technology. They brought invaluable engineering expertise and specialist pump information to this venture and are a fundamental part of its success.”
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