Centrifugal Pumps In Heated Bitumen Pipeline Service

• Main Authors: Dickau, Ralph, Pardo, Carlos
• Other Authors: International Pump Users Symposium (21st : 2004)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Texas A&M University. Turbomachinery Laboratories 2004
• Subjects: Pumping machinery; Arctic
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/163996; https://doi.org/10.21423/R18D7J

Lecture pg. 10 World scale deposits of oil sands (bitumen) in North Alberta are being developed to extract hydrocarbons from the sand. A pilot facility was built to pump raw heavy tar-like bitumen in a heated state through an insulated and buried long distance pipeline in order to determine technological and economic viability. This paper describes the special considerations in the selection, design, installation, and control of pipeline pumps to transport high viscosity heated bitumen. Loss of heat in the pumps and the pipeline would increase viscosity of the bitumen, which could not be recovered and would result in a permanent failure of the facility. To increase pump reliability, standard mechanical seals, auxiliary piping, and bearings were modified. Also affecting the pump design was the need to manufacture the pump station in modules in Edmonton, Alberta, then transport the modules 500 km (315 miles) to the site for assembly. This was due to remove, cold, arctic-like, and high labor cost environment of the site. For flow rate and pressure control, the pumps were powered by a variable speed electric motor drive. Redundant safety systems were used to ensure the pumps and pump station were operational and 100 percent available.