Water waste is often deemed an unwanted, but inevitable by-product of mining processes. Yet trendy pump sealing technology exists which may nearly get rid of this waste while conserving power, bettering pump reliability and attaining long run operational financial savings.
compound gauge ราคา is one of the most vital, and increasingly imperilled, assets on earth. That a lot is understood and acknowledged by industries across the globe.
However, it is also one of the unnecessarily squandered sources in mining operations. And whereas the trade has begun to embrace efficiency and sustainability-led advances such as automation and renewable power, it remains steadfastly set in its methods in relation to slurry pump know-how.
Three approaches are routinely specified by pump manufacturers to seal slurry pumps: mechanical packing, expellers (also generally known as ‘dynamic’ seals’) and single mechanical seals. All include vital limitations, together with poor reliability, lowered mean instances between failure (MTBF), intensive upkeep requirements and higher operational costs.
These factors alone ought to give mine managers trigger for a re-evaluation of the sealing methods used on slurry pumps. However, any company with a dedication to the International Standards Organisation ISO-14001 Standard for environmental administration techniques and ISO-50001 Standard for vitality administration techniques should pay attention to the extreme water waste and high power consumption that results from opting for these conventional sealing methods.
Inefficient sealing When used to seal the method pumps in a mine’s scrubber and floatation circuits, gland packing, single mechanical seals and expeller seals all demand one of the most wasteful aspects of slurry processing which is seal flush water injection.
On gland packed pumps it’s essential that packing is flushed with clear water to maintain it cool and lubricated, while each single slurry seals and expellers require a provide of cool, clean flush water to be injected into the method at excessive strain, maintaining a steady fluid movie between the delicate seal faces to keep them cool and lubricated, whereas forcing the damaging slurry away.
The flush water required in all three sealing approaches is provided from an external supply and injected into the process at a better stress than the stuffing field strain, consistent with the trade standard American Petroleum Institute (API) Piping Plan 32. Water which doesn’t leak onto the ground or into the process is shipped to the tailings dam. This also has an impact on the water balance of the plant.
This approach constitutes a lack of clear water amounting to billions of gallons a 12 months globally. One massive, standard slurry pump sometimes consumes 10 US gallons (37.8 litres) per minute, amounting to five.2 million US gallons (19.6 million litres) of water every year – a stunning statistic by any measure.
At a time when global water supply is predicted to fall wanting demand by some 40% by 20301 , removing pointless use of this useful resource should arguably be a central plank of any accountable sustainability programme. Yet excessive water use, and the higher vitality consumption it entails, stay embedded within the processes of many mining companies. Worse still, it’s honest to say that it is often accepted as simply ‘par for the course’ by reliability engineers and management alike.
But the fact is that water waste on any scale is a very pointless function of slurry operations as it can be almost totally eradicated simply by using superior double mechanical seals and trendy water management help techniques.
Improve reliability The kind of seal selected, the environment by which it operates, and crucially, the tank support system which supplies the water to maximise seal life, combine to provide the answer to excessive water waste and power use.
Modern double mechanical seals have two units of faces, one sealing to the process fluid and one to atmosphere, with a barrier space between the 2. They are designed to satisfy the arduous requirements of heavy responsibility slurry purposes, with fortified metallic elements that are extremely proof against corrosion and erosion. Large ports and elevated radial clearances mean the lubrication which is important to optimising seal life is maintained constantly and consistently.
A pressurised barrier tank system is central to the environmental sustainability of this solution. It employs a thermosiphon process which provides clean, cool water to the barrier house between the double seals at a stress higher than the product stress, making certain a constant, steady and clean fluid film to maintain the seal faces cool and lubricated.
As the mechanical seals generate warmth, the hot water in the barrier space rises to the tank and is radiated to the ambiance, allowing the cooler, denser water to sink again down to provide cool lubrication to the seal faces. Most importantly, the flush water is consistently recycled, flowing throughout the seal faces in a continuous loop and decreasing leakage to the absolute minimum, roughly a teaspoonful a day.
While API Plan 32 is unsuitable for servicing multiple slurry pumps in a ‘series train’ with out the necessity to install special pump systems, pressurised barrier tanks supply scores up to 435 psi (30 bar), making them ideal for these applications. Self-topping and self-pressurising, they are additionally virtually maintenance-free.
Where no plant water supply is out there for topping up the tank systems, or the supply has inadequate pressure, fluid delivery units may be chosen to provide the barrier fluid to seal faces. These have the added advantages of being able to provide a water/glycol mixture or oil to offer freeze safety in extraordinarily chilly climates.
Wide-ranging advantages The benefits of upgrading to trendy sealing solutions and support techniques were felt by a coal mine in Poland using a slurry pump to supply coal mud at 9 bar (135 psi) to filter press. Flushed packing resulted in huge dilution of product, leading to tremendously increased filtration times and costs. The pump was sealed with a double mechanical seal designed to satisfy the arduous requirements of the process.
The supporting seal tank system lowered leakage and product dilution to nearly zero. Return on funding was swift and the financial savings long-term. The advantages when it comes to water conservation have been equally longlasting and the company’s status enhanced.
The mining business should cope with a troublesome and expensive challenge in relation to sustaining rotating gear. But the planning, processing and disposal of flush water constitutes an operational and financial burden which is completely avoidable.
And when an organization can remove water waste simultaneously growing reliability and decreasing long term operational costs, the choice to improve to trendy methods should certainly be a moral imperative as nicely as making sound enterprise sense.
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