During the show, we were able to discuss various applications and opportunities with visitors including:

• Warren and Houttuin branded pumps for tank farm and port tank terminal business units for export, shipping, loading/unloading pump applications for a range of end user liquid products
• Zenith branded injection pumps/systems for high pressure liquid catalyst injection for the reactors in a polymer processing plants
• IMO & Allweiler branded 3 screw pumps for handling shear sensitive Polyols and liquid styrene used for the manufacture of Polyurethanes
• Warren & Houttuin branded 2-screw pumps used in the Carbon Black plants (for Elastomers & Rubber manufacturing) for anti-foulant charge pumps, binder (aqueous lignosulfonate solution) transfer pumps and Coal tar feed pumps all involving the injection and transfer of viscous and challenging process liquids for critical petrochemical plant applications.

Colfax Fluid Handling representative Simon Pistilli discusses the Allweiler branded AllHeat centrifugal pump

The Colfax Fluid Handling booth at the SABIC Technical and Innovation Conference

Sean McCandless
Oil and Gas Market Manager
Colfax Fluid Handling

I started a series recently offering users a few tips to help with a smooth transition on equipment start up.  Today, I'd like to offer up some tips if you have purchased a horizontal pump configuration.  Horizontal pumps configurations are a common orientation, at least for Colfax Fluid Handling.  Again, bullet points are provided below and I recommend you work with your supplier and their technical staff to ensure proper installation.

• Be sure the foundation is level with hold-down bots tight.
• Be sure that grouting has completely filled the base plate with no hollow or voids and has cured.
• If the pump will handle liquid above 150F or a steam turbine is used as the driver, an estimate of the center line growth in height of the hot machine must be made.  Shaft to shaft alignment (cold) should incorporate a deliberate, compensating offset, so that alignment is nearly correct when equipment is up at operating temperature
• Users should not rely on the alignment that was produced where the pump and drive train were assembled.  Transportation, lifting and handling as well as foundation irregularities will impact alignment, always in an undesirable direction.  Final alignment should be achieved as a last step before start up.

Today, I'm going to start a series of blogs that offer you a pre-startup guide that may help minimize issues with your system.  Rather than provide an exhaustive discussion about each, I'll just list bullet points below and you can take it from there.  Standard disclaimer - this is not an exhaustive list and I encourage you to thoroughly read the technical manuals and instructions from your pump, driver and all auxiliary equipment suppliers to learn of requirements that may be specific to their equipment.

Pipe and Valves:

1. Verify that all valves have been installed and in the proper orientation.  An absent or reverse mounted check valve, foot valve or relief valve can cause serious damage
2. Verify that piping has been inspected during fabrication to insure that weld bead, weld rod and scale have been removed.
3. Pressure test your piping system. Do not pressure test in excess of design limits and many pumps can withstand discharge pressure only on their discharge side.
4. Check and tighten all flange blots to specified torque
5. Flush the entire piping and valve system to remove all dirt and fabrication debris.  This is customarily done using a flush pump.

This show also marks the first time that Howden and Colfax Fluid Handling have exhibited under the Colfax umbrella.  We're fortunate to work with Howden as they have many positive and longstanding relationships within the Power market.  Here are some photos -

Colfax Fluid Handling representative Ben Martin providing an overview of Fluid Handling technology

Colfax Fluid Handling Booth - Power Gen International

Howden Booth at Power Gen International

If you're in Orlando, today is your last chance to stop by.

Why is a two screw pump a great choice for tank terminal operations?  Primarily because of low NPSHR (Net Positive Suction Head Required).  NPSH can be a difficult concept to understand but may be best summarized by the amount of fluid energy required to prevent the pump from cavitating.  NPSHR is associated with the pump while NPSHA (Net Positive Suction Head Available) is associated with the system.  For this application, the Fluid Handling team worked directly with the engineering team and end user to lower the NPSHR.  As a general rule, you can lower NPSHR by slowing the speed of the pump.  This doesn't work in all cases so discuss with your sales or engineering contact your application specifics.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Also, if you are involved in steam flood operations, operators may consider multiphase systems as part of their surface extraction operation.  If you're unfamiliar with multiphase technology, we offer the following description on our Oil and Gas site -  "Multiphase systems handle the raw, production fluid stream with no pretreatment or conditioning of the fluid, operating in a near continuous upset mode due to the widely varying pressures, temperatures and fluid composition from the wells. The pumps not only eliminate harmful flaring and reduce the equipment footprint, but they reduce the backpressure on the wells and introduce additional energy into the upstream gathering system, thereby accelerating the total output from the reservoirs. The added benefit of technology would be the introduction of extra energy into the process fluid, thereby increasing the fluid velocity in the overall piping network, helping to eliminate solids settling and downstream gas pocket obstructions."

If you're interested in learning more, send us an email and schedule your lunch and learn session.  We're buying lunch!

For example, here are 5 facts that you may or may not have known about positive displacement technology -

1. Positive displacement (PD) pumps don't produce head like centrifugal pumps, they move flow.
2. The rate of a PD pump, unlike a centrifugal pump, increases as the fluid viscosity increases.
3. PD pump performance is not dependent on specific gravity, unlike centrifugal pumps.
4. Rotary PD pump performance is not governed by the Best Efficiency Point (BEP)
5. Unlike centrifugal pumps, most PD pumps are self-priming and some can pull almost a pure vacuum.

   

Contact us to schedule your session.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Be sure to check out of schedule of events.  We hope to see you at one of our 2013 events.

If you are involved with IGF's, you may want to consider two screw pumps as an alternative to the commonly used open impeller centrifugal pumps.  Two screw pumps offer low shear features which may allow larger percentage of the oil to be recovered and returned to the central process.  Greater recovery factor likely means lower disposal costs and potentially greater production yield or throughput.

For additional design consideration, know that two screw pumps can be paired with VSD's to accommodate any process or fluid changes that the IGF experiences over its life.