A salt extraction operation had to transfer rapidly from an onshore to an offshore web site equipped by 5 km of pipework. The firm turned to circulate control companion Celeros to assist meet the distinctive circumstances encountered on the new salt nicely.
Overview of the 2 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 on-line ahead of schedule, preventing a possible halt in manufacturing when the prevailing onshore nicely developed points. Frisia Zout BV, part of K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH, was capable of 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 40,000-tonne storage facility for supply in bulk to trade. The remainder is packed in smaller portions for use in food manufacturing or made into cubes for water purification.
The salt is extracted underneath licence from the Dutch government. The current borehole licence
allowed K+S to extract salt from underground on the mainland. Due to regulatory changes, the brand new licence would solely permit extraction from subsea sources off the coast. Consequently, a new borehole and associated plant was required at the Frisia Zout BV site.
New challenges
K+S began planning for a brand new pump building in 2017, and building started in April 2020 with the goal of bringing it onstream before the prevailing extraction licence expired at the finish of 2021. However, unexpected difficulties arose with the existing onshore well, which meant that production would cease sooner than anticipated. To bridge the hole, Frisia Zout BV started bringing in salt water by tanker, but this was an costly alternative. As a end result, it grew to become imperative to deliver the new offshore well onstream as quickly as attainable.
Time pressures were not the one challenges the company confronted. Due to the natural geology, the extraction path to the new offshore resource was not a straight bore: it modified path twice earlier than reaching the salt deposits. In fact, 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 outcome, the method water has to be pumped in at excessive pressure (250 barg) and at a excessive circulate price (450 m3/h) to extract the amount of salt required, making the selection of pumps crucial to success.
Total solution
Frisia Zout BV has an extended and established relationship with Celeros FT via the ClydeUnion Pumps model, primarily based not solely on the prime quality of ITS OEM pumps but in addition on its ability to respond quickly to any operational points. The firm turned to its trusted flow management partner as quickly as again for help in meeting the distinctive circumstances encountered on the new salt nicely.
Celeros FT brand ClydeUnion Pumps assessed the flow necessities for the water injection course of on the new plant and verified that CUP-BB3 pumps might be made to fulfill requirements. The pumps have been specified with Duplex stainless-steel casings as a outcome of they’d be working in a salt-laden setting. Become an insider manufactured, equipped, put in and commissioned the mission-critical pumps for injecting water into the new offshore salt cavern, meeting unusual necessities for prime 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 new obligation necessities.
Jouk Riemer, challenge manager for Frisia Zout BV, explained: “We have used CUP-BB3 pumps in the past and found that their multistage centrifugal design offers higher performance, compared to plunger pumps, for this utility. We wished to make use of them once more for the brand new challenge. The Celeros FT team responded to the challenges magnificently, using their engineering expertise to determine the best solution to satisfy the strain and move rates we required, delivering the pump skids to satisfy the new building schedule and serving to us hold the venture on monitor.”
Future assured
The new salt extraction plant got here online in December 2020. Its CUP-BB3 pumps meet the excessive stress and move rates required for the applying and might run in parallel, which has improved productivity. The availability of a spare pump provides additional confidence that manufacturing downtime shall be minimal. The company’s capability to satisfy the accelerated venture deadline is especially impressive when you think about that the Covid-19 pandemic was already affecting provides of supplies and parts. The Celeros FT team worked onerous to ensure that this did not have any influence on their customer.
Celeros FT also provided specialist engineering experience throughout the installation and commissioning section and can proceed to ensure the pumps function satisfactorily throughout the plant’s 15-year lifespan, although the pump building could additionally be required to serve more than one properly in future as demand for K+S excessive purity salt continues to grow. Easy replacement of put on and tear parts and ongoing service support from Celeros FT will be sure that the BB3 pumps continue to fulfill operational parameters all through the extraction plant’s lifetime.
Riemer mentioned: “The combination of prime of the range OEM tools and practical engineering expertise provided by Celeros Flow Technology was instrumental in delivering this venture ahead of time. I’m convinced it would have taken so much longer to get what we required from another pump manufacturer. The company’s responsiveness was essential in assembly our revised deadline, reducing costs and maintaining extraction at this website viable.” Riemer concluded: “This is the primary offshore extraction properly we’ve developed nevertheless it has been a largely positive expertise because of Celeros Flow Technology. They brought invaluable engineering expertise and specialist pump knowledge to this project and are a elementary part of its success.”
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