Rising to the salt extraction challenge

A salt extraction operation needed to transfer rapidly from an onshore to an offshore website provided by 5 km of pipework. The company turned to circulate control partner Celeros to help meet the distinctive circumstances encountered on the new salt well.
Overview of the 2 new water injection pumps for single and parallel operation, following installation and commissioning at the Frisia Zout BV website.
A new salt extraction plant off the north coast of Holland has been brought online ahead of schedule, preventing a possible halt in manufacturing when the existing onshore properly developed points. Frisia Zout BV, a part of K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH, was in a position to 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 40,000-tonne storage facility for supply in bulk to business. The the rest is packed in smaller portions to be used in meals manufacturing or made into cubes for water purification.
The salt is extracted under licence from the Dutch government. The current borehole licence
allowed K+S to extract salt from underground on the mainland. Due to regulatory adjustments, the model new licence would solely allow extraction from subsea sources off the coast. Consequently, a new borehole and related plant was required on the Frisia Zout BV site.
New challenges
K+S started planning for a new pump building in 2017, and development began in April 2020 with the purpose of bringing it onstream earlier than the existing extraction licence expired at the finish of 2021. However, unforeseen difficulties arose with the present onshore nicely, which meant that manufacturing would cease sooner than anticipated. To bridge the gap, Frisia Zout BV began bringing in salt water by tanker, but this was an costly various. As เกจวัดแรงดันลมราคา , it grew to become imperative to convey the brand new offshore well onstream as quickly as potential.
Time pressures were not the only challenges the corporate confronted. Due to the pure geology, the extraction path to the model new offshore useful resource was not a straight bore: it modified direction twice before reaching the salt deposits. In reality, the brand new plant is fed by one of the deepest wells on the earth and has 5 km of pipework beyond the water injection pumps. As a end result, the method water has to be pumped in at excessive strain (250 barg) and at a excessive flow price (450 m3/h) to extract the quantity of salt required, making the choice of pumps critical to success.
Total solution
Frisia Zout BV has an extended and established relationship with Celeros FT through the ClydeUnion Pumps model, based not only on the top quality of ITS OEM pumps but additionally on its capability to respond shortly to any operational issues. The company turned to its trusted move management partner once once more for assist in assembly the unique circumstances encountered on the new salt properly.
Celeros FT model ClydeUnion Pumps assessed the flow requirements for the water injection process on the new plant and verified that CUP-BB3 pumps might be made to fulfill requirements. The pumps were specified with Duplex stainless-steel casings as a result of they would be operating in a salt-laden setting. Celeros FT manufactured, provided, put in and commissioned the mission-critical pumps for injecting water into the new offshore salt cavern, meeting uncommon requirements for prime pressure 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 duty requirements.
Jouk Riemer, challenge manager for Frisia Zout BV, defined: “We have used CUP-BB3 pumps in the past and found that their multistage centrifugal design provides better performance, compared to plunger pumps, for this application. We needed to make use of them again for the model new challenge. The Celeros FT group responded to the challenges magnificently, utilizing their engineering expertise to establish the best answer to satisfy the stress and circulate rates we required, delivering the pump skids to fulfill the new development schedule and helping us maintain the challenge on track.”
Future assured
The new salt extraction plant got here on-line in December 2020. Its CUP-BB3 pumps meet the high strain and move charges required for the appliance and might run in parallel, which has improved productiveness. The availability of a spare pump gives extra confidence that production downtime will be minimal. The company’s ability to meet the accelerated venture deadline is especially impressive when you think about that the Covid-19 pandemic was already affecting provides of supplies and elements. The Celeros FT team worked hard to ensure that this didn’t have any influence on their buyer.
Celeros FT also provided specialist engineering experience throughout the installation and commissioning part and will continue to ensure the pumps operate satisfactorily all through the plant’s 15-year lifespan, although the pump building may be required to serve multiple nicely in future as demand for K+S excessive purity salt continues to grow. Easy substitute of put on and tear parts and ongoing service help from Celeros FT will ensure that the BB3 pumps continue to satisfy operational parameters throughout the extraction plant’s lifetime.
Riemer mentioned: “The combination of excessive quality OEM tools and practical engineering skills offered by Celeros Flow Technology was instrumental in delivering this challenge ahead of time. I’m convinced it will have taken a lot longer to get what we required from another pump producer. The company’s responsiveness was crucial in meeting our revised deadline, lowering prices and keeping extraction at this web site viable.” Riemer concluded: “This is the first offshore extraction well we’ve developed nevertheless it has been a largely positive expertise thanks to Celeros Flow Technology. They introduced invaluable engineering experience and specialist pump data to this challenge and are a elementary a half of its success.”
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