Rising to the salt extraction challenge

A salt extraction operation needed to transfer quickly from an onshore to an offshore web site equipped by 5 km of pipework. The firm turned to flow control companion Celeros to assist meet the unique circumstances encountered at the new salt nicely.
Overview of the 2 new water injection pumps for single and parallel operation, following set up and commissioning on the Frisia Zout BV website.
A new salt extraction plant off the north coast of Holland has been brought on-line ahead of schedule, preventing a possible 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 the rest is packed in smaller quantities for use in meals manufacturing or made into cubes for water purification.
The salt is extracted under licence from the Dutch authorities. The current borehole licence
allowed K+S to extract salt from underground on the mainland. Due to regulatory changes, the model new licence would only allow extraction from subsea sources off the coast. Consequently, a new borehole and related plant was required on the Frisia Zout BV web site.
New challenges
K+S began planning for a new pump building in 2017, and construction began in April 2020 with the purpose of bringing it onstream earlier than the existing extraction licence expired on the finish of 2021. However, unexpected difficulties arose with the prevailing onshore well, which meant that production would stop ahead of anticipated. To bridge the hole, Frisia Zout BV started bringing in salt water by tanker, but this was an costly alternative. As a outcome, it became imperative to convey the brand new offshore well onstream as quickly as attainable.
Time pressures were not the only challenges the company confronted. Due to the pure geology, the extraction path to the brand new offshore resource was not a straight bore: it changed path twice before reaching the salt deposits. In fact, the new plant is fed by one of the deepest wells on the earth and has 5 km of pipework past the water injection pumps. As a end result, the method water must be pumped in at excessive stress (250 barg) and at a excessive flow rate (450 m3/h) to extract the amount of salt required, making the choice of pumps crucial to success.
Total solution
Frisia Zout BV has a protracted and established relationship with Celeros FT via the ClydeUnion Pumps brand, based mostly not only on the high quality of ITS OEM pumps but additionally on its ability to reply rapidly to any operational issues. The company turned to its trusted flow control associate as quickly as again for help in meeting the distinctive circumstances encountered at the new salt well.
Celeros FT brand ClydeUnion Pumps assessed the move requirements for the water injection course of on the new plant and verified that CUP-BB3 pumps could possibly be made to fulfill requirements. The pumps had been specified with Duplex stainless-steel casings as a 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, meeting uncommon necessities for high pressure and excessive move charges. 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 responsibility requirements.
Jouk Riemer, project supervisor for Frisia Zout BV, defined: “We have used CUP-BB3 pumps in the past and found that their multistage centrifugal design offers higher efficiency, in comparison with plunger pumps, for this software. เกจวัดแรงดันน้ำมันเครื่อง wanted to make use of them once more for the new venture. The Celeros FT team responded to the challenges magnificently, using their engineering expertise to determine the best solution to satisfy the pressure and circulate charges we required, delivering the pump skids to satisfy the model new building schedule and serving to us hold the challenge on track.”
Future assured
The new salt extraction plant came online in December 2020. Its CUP-BB3 pumps meet the high stress and circulate charges required for the applying and may run in parallel, which has improved productivity. The availability of a spare pump gives further confidence that manufacturing downtime might be minimal. The company’s capability to meet the accelerated project deadline is especially impressive when you suppose about that the Covid-19 pandemic was already affecting supplies of supplies and components. The Celeros FT group worked exhausting to make certain that this did not have any impression on their buyer.
Celeros FT additionally provided specialist engineering expertise throughout the installation and commissioning phase and will proceed to ensure the pumps operate satisfactorily throughout the plant’s 15-year lifespan, though the pump building could also be required to serve multiple properly in future as demand for K+S high purity salt continues to develop. Easy replacement of damage parts and ongoing service assist from Celeros FT will make positive that the BB3 pumps proceed to meet operational parameters throughout the extraction plant’s lifetime.
Riemer said: “The mixture of high quality OEM equipment and practical engineering skills provided by Celeros Flow Technology was instrumental in delivering this venture forward of time. I’m convinced it might have taken so much longer to get what we required from another pump producer. The company’s responsiveness was crucial in assembly our revised deadline, reducing costs and maintaining extraction at this site viable.” Riemer concluded: “This is the first offshore extraction nicely we have developed but it has been a largely positive expertise thanks to Celeros Flow Technology. เกจวัดแรงดันถังออกซิเจน introduced invaluable engineering experience and specialist pump information to this venture and are a fundamental a half of its success.”
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