Rising to the salt extraction challenge

A salt extraction operation needed to move shortly from an onshore to an offshore web site equipped by 5 km of pipework. The company turned to flow control partner Celeros to assist meet the unique circumstances encountered on the new salt well.
Overview of the two new water injection pumps for single and parallel operation, following installation and commissioning at the Frisia Zout BV web site.
A new salt extraction plant off the north coast of Holland has been brought online 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 in a place to overcome the time and technical challenges of accelerating the venture by working in partnership with Celeros Flow Technology (Celeros FT).
The bulk of the salt produced by Frisia Zout BV goes loose to a forty,000-tonne storage facility for delivery in bulk to trade. The remainder is packed in smaller quantities to be used in meals production or made into cubes for water purification.
The salt is extracted underneath licence from the Dutch authorities. The present borehole licence
allowed K+S to extract salt from underground on the mainland. Due to regulatory modifications, the new licence would solely allow extraction from subsea sources off the coast. Consequently, a new borehole and associated plant was required on the Frisia Zout BV website.
New challenges
K+S started planning for a new pump building in 2017, and building started in April 2020 with the aim of bringing it onstream before the existing extraction licence expired at the end of 2021. However, unexpected difficulties arose with the existing onshore properly, which meant that production would cease ahead of anticipated. To bridge the gap, Frisia Zout BV began bringing in salt water by tanker, however this was an costly alternative. As a outcome, it became imperative to deliver the model new offshore nicely onstream as soon as potential.
Time pressures weren’t the only challenges the company confronted. Due to the natural geology, the extraction route to the new offshore resource was not a straight bore: it modified direction twice before reaching the salt deposits. In fact, the new plant is fed by one of the deepest wells on the planet and has 5 km of pipework beyond the water injection pumps. As a result, the process water must be pumped in at high stress (250 barg) and at a high move fee (450 m3/h) to extract the amount of salt required, making the selection of pumps crucial to success.
Total answer
Frisia Zout BV has a protracted and established relationship with Celeros FT by way of the ClydeUnion Pumps model, based mostly not only on the high quality of ITS OEM pumps but in addition on its capability to reply rapidly to any operational issues. The firm turned to its trusted flow control partner once again for help in assembly the unique circumstances encountered on the new salt properly.
Celeros FT brand ClydeUnion Pumps assessed the move requirements for the water injection process on the new plant and verified that CUP-BB3 pumps could presumably be made to satisfy necessities. The pumps had been specified with Duplex stainless-steel casings as a outcome of they would be working in a salt-laden environment. Celeros FT manufactured, equipped, installed and commissioned the mission-critical pumps for injecting water into the model new offshore salt cavern, meeting unusual necessities for high pressure and excessive flow rates. 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 brand new obligation requirements.
Jouk Riemer, venture supervisor for Frisia Zout BV, defined: “We have used CUP-BB3 pumps prior to now and found that their multistage centrifugal design provides higher efficiency, in comparison with plunger pumps, for this application. We wished to use them again for the brand new project. The Celeros FT staff responded to the challenges magnificently, utilizing their engineering expertise to establish the most effective answer to satisfy the stress and flow charges we required, delivering the pump skids to meet the model new construction schedule and serving to us hold the challenge on observe.”
Future assured
The new salt extraction plant got here online in December 2020. Its CUP-BB3 pumps meet the high stress and circulate rates required for the application and may run in parallel, which has improved productivity. The availability of a spare pump provides extra confidence that production downtime shall be minimal. The company’s capability to meet the accelerated venture deadline is especially impressive when you consider that the Covid-19 pandemic was already affecting provides of materials and elements. ราคาเกจวัดแรงดัน labored onerous to ensure that this didn’t have any influence on their customer.
Celeros FT also provided specialist engineering experience throughout the installation and commissioning part and will proceed to ensure the pumps operate satisfactorily all through the plant’s 15-year lifespan, although the pump constructing could also be required to serve more than one nicely in future as demand for K+S excessive purity salt continues to develop. Easy replacement of damage components and ongoing service assist from Celeros FT will ensure that the BB3 pumps continue to satisfy operational parameters all through the extraction plant’s lifetime.
Riemer said: “The combination of excessive quality OEM gear and practical engineering abilities provided by Celeros Flow Technology was instrumental in delivering this challenge forward of time. I’m satisfied it will have taken lots longer to get what we required from one other pump producer. The company’s responsiveness was essential in meeting our revised deadline, reducing costs and maintaining extraction at this site viable.” Riemer concluded: “This is the primary offshore extraction properly we now have developed nevertheless it has been a largely optimistic expertise because of Celeros Flow Technology. They brought invaluable engineering experience and specialist pump information to this project and are a elementary a half of its success.”
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