A salt extraction operation had to transfer shortly from an onshore to an offshore web site provided by 5 km of pipework. The company turned to move management partner 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 on the Frisia Zout BV site.
A new salt extraction plant off the north coast of Holland has been brought online forward of schedule, preventing a potential halt in production when the prevailing onshore properly developed issues. Frisia Zout BV, 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 free to a forty,000-tonne storage facility for delivery in bulk to business. The the rest is packed in smaller quantities for use in meals manufacturing or made into cubes for water purification.
The salt is extracted underneath licence from the Dutch authorities. The existing borehole licence
allowed K+S to extract salt from underground on the mainland. Due to regulatory adjustments, the brand new licence would only permit 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 model new pump constructing in 2017, and construction began in April 2020 with the purpose of bringing it onstream earlier than the present extraction licence expired on the finish of 2021. However, unforeseen difficulties arose with the prevailing onshore nicely, which meant that production would stop ahead of anticipated. To bridge the hole, Frisia Zout BV began bringing in salt water by tanker, however this was an expensive different. As a end result, it grew to become imperative to bring the brand new offshore properly onstream as soon as potential.
Time pressures weren’t the only challenges the company faced. pressure gauge ลม to the natural geology, the extraction path to the new offshore useful resource was not a straight bore: it modified course twice earlier than reaching the salt deposits. In truth, the new plant is fed by one of the deepest wells in the world and has 5 km of pipework past the water injection pumps. As a outcome, the process water must be pumped in at excessive stress (250 barg) and at a excessive move fee (450 m3/h) to extract the amount of salt required, making the selection of pumps important to success.
Total answer
Frisia Zout BV has an extended and established relationship with Celeros FT via the ClydeUnion Pumps model, based mostly not only on the high quality of ITS OEM pumps but also on its capability to reply rapidly to any operational points. The firm turned to its trusted flow control partner as quickly as again for assist in meeting the unique circumstances encountered on the new salt well.
Celeros FT brand ClydeUnion Pumps assessed the flow requirements for the water injection process at the new plant and verified that CUP-BB3 pumps could be made to meet requirements. The pumps had been specified with Duplex stainless-steel casings as a outcome of they’d be operating in a salt-laden setting. Celeros FT manufactured, provided, put in and commissioned the mission-critical pumps for injecting water into the brand new offshore salt cavern, assembly unusual requirements for prime strain and excessive flow rates. 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 make sure it met the brand new obligation necessities.
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 performance, compared to plunger pumps, for this software. We wanted to make use of them once more for the new venture. The Celeros FT group responded to the challenges magnificently, utilizing their engineering experience to identify one of the best answer to satisfy the stress and flow rates we required, delivering the pump skids to fulfill the brand new development schedule and helping us hold the challenge on observe.”
Future assured
The new salt extraction plant got here on-line in December 2020. Its CUP-BB3 pumps meet the excessive stress and move charges required for the applying and can 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 capacity to fulfill the accelerated project deadline is especially impressive when you think about that the Covid-19 pandemic was already affecting provides of supplies and elements. The Celeros FT staff worked hard to guarantee that this didn’t have any impression on their buyer.
Celeros FT also provided specialist engineering expertise throughout the installation and commissioning part and will continue to ensure the pumps operate satisfactorily throughout the plant’s 15-year lifespan, although the pump building may be required to serve more than one nicely in future as demand for K+S high purity salt continues to grow. Easy substitute of wear and tear elements and ongoing service support from Celeros FT will be positive that the BB3 pumps proceed to satisfy operational parameters all through the extraction plant’s lifetime.
Riemer mentioned: “The mixture of high quality OEM tools and practical engineering abilities supplied by Celeros Flow Technology was instrumental in delivering this venture ahead of time. I’m convinced it will have taken lots longer to get what we required from another pump producer. The company’s responsiveness was essential in meeting our revised deadline, lowering costs and keeping extraction at this website viable.” Riemer concluded: “This is the first offshore extraction well we’ve developed but it has been a largely positive expertise due to Celeros Flow Technology. They brought invaluable engineering experience and specialist pump knowledge to this challenge and are a elementary part of its success.”
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