With a capacity of roughly 195,000 barrels per day, this young oil sands mine was commissioned between 2017 and 2018 with two GIW® LHD-50 pumps for the PSV U/F application. Traditionally, the LHD line is used in dredging operations but has seen success in the oil sands over the years.
Challenge
As the customer approached full throughput, the severity of operating conditions caused rapid wear of the impeller and suction liner of the LHD pumps. The wear resulted in the pump reaching just 800 - 1,000 hours before a component needed to be replaced, and outages lasting up to 36 hours with the plant operating at roughly 50% production. Consequently, the customer wasn’t meeting its six-month run time goal, and they needed a resolution.
Solution
The immediate solution was to enhance the materials for the existing LDH design. The result was a 20% improvement in wear life, but a long-term solution was needed to realize the customer’s six month run time target. After further analysis of the process and system, the team identified the need for a larger and slower running slurry pump. The GIW® MDX-650 L series was the best candidate to meet the customer’s goal.
The L pump series is a larger, slower running slurry pump featuring KSB GIW Inc.’s latest hydraulic and wear improvement technologies that addresses wear issues like severe impeller eye wear and suction liner wear. This series is equipped with an efficient slurry diverter, heavier clearing vanes, improved impeller nose, and other wear maximizing advancements.
Futhermore, the MDX-650 L has a 70” impeller which is noticeably larger than the 50” impeller of its LHD predecessor. The larger impeller provides a lower turning speed and improves overall slurry handling. For extra durability against wear, the pump was outfitted with a suction liner made of Endurasite™ with an Enduraclad™ overlay.
The installation of the MDX-650 L was executed in December 2020. Start-up was successful and the pump was immediately put into service. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first full run of the pump was delayed and took place between September 2021 and April 2022. For enhanced, remote monitoring of liner wear and pump clearance, the KSB team installed the GIW® SLYsight technology on the suction liner. Since GIW® SLYsight provides real-time wear performance monitoring, the number of pump maintenance outages needed to physically check the wear rate of parts was dramatically reduced, thus saving the customer time and money.
Results
An inspection of the pump occurred after 4,700 hours. This inspection validated that minimal material was lost and parts could be used for another six-month run. The customer has experienced a significant improvement in operational efficiency, marked by a decrease in the number of unplanned outages and an increase in production hours, resulting in an additional 1 million barrels per year. Furthermore, the MDX-650 L surpassed its target goal of 6 months of continuous operation, achieving over 8,000 hours of runtime using the same parts.